God is good, and miracles are real - September 16, 2013

To all the lovely people in my life,

I hope everyone in CO is safe. That's definitely scary to have floods like that! Please keep me updated. Wow, what a week it has been. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to my district at the CTM. They have been my family here in Brazil and I won't see many of them for 2 years or more. It's incredible to me how you can become so close with a group of strangers in just 6 weeks. I love them dearly.

September 7th was the birthday of Brazil's independence! We had a special lunch with ICE CREAM. i couldn't believe it...the whole 6 weeks i had been there we hadn't had ice cream! It really is the little things :) It was difficult to say goodbye to our instructors as well. Something funny was that Irmao Allan said, "Sister Sperry, your spouse will be a mix of your best and worst companion." haha I thought that was great. We"ll see if that's true! He prayed for us individually in our last prayer. He prayed for me to bless people's lives with my happiness, and that through my Christlike attributes I could invite others to be like Christ. I really appreciated that, especially because it was scary to leave all that we know at the CTM where we are so sheltered. At the same time though, I was ready to leave and meet the people in my mission.

So, a few things about Brazil and Bebedouro. We have mate every morning Chandler! And you were right...they do give you fruit for dessert. My first lunch here the Sister is like, okay it's time for dessert! And brings out an orange haha. The food is actually really good, which scares me because I don't want to come out of this country doubled in size!! :) However, I have never walked so much. I can literally feel the pounds sweating off of me! Not that I mind :) Our area is ginormous, just like the toilets in the movie Elf :) (that part where he goes to NY...ya know?) We always always have rice and beans, meat, and salad.Every day we have lunch with a Sister in the ward, and then don't eat until we get home. But trust me, i feel like i'm eating enough for 3 people down here!

I'm glad I grew up with brothers, because the bugs and dirt don't scare me at all. Our house is definitely in humble circumstances, but i'm just grateful to have somewhere to come home to at the end of the day.I already have an awesome sandal tan line, so that's pretty cool! Oh, and the other day, a bird totally flew into our house!! It's funny because I just smiled and eventually it left. My view on the world is definitely changing. I would say i'm pretty accustomed to the culture now, but at times I have to remember that i'm not in the states anymore!

So the members are great. Church is definitely different here, but the people are wonderful. I was asked to speak yesterday, my first sunday here! I think it went alright. For the most part I am feeling more confident in my ability to speak and understand,. which is such a blessing. It can be so hard at times, and I wonder if I will ever get better. But I know I am already improving. You kind of have no choice when all you speak, hear, and see is portuguese. You can choose to live in misery, or you can choose to learn the language and communicate with the people. The second option is a lot better.

The people here are hilarious. So open and loving. We'll be talking with someone and ask them if we can mark their address to stop by later, and they're like, sure! However, the brazillians are not very good with committments so that's the downfall. The other night we were walking and asked a lady if she could direct us to a street. She said, "no, i'm going to jail." we were thinking...what??? so my companion, sister tooker, just said, "boa sorte!" which means good luck haha. We could not stop laughing.

I want to tel you about a wonderful miracle I experienced yesterday. We were looking at our area book, and there is a lady whose mom is a member and she has an 8 year old who was just baptized last year, but she has not been progressing. Tooks didn't think it would be worth it to visit them, but i figured we should give it a try because we are all children of God. We went to visit, and we got to know her. She said that she wants to be baptized but she wants to improve in her life and in her sins first. It was strange, but I had the impression to tell her that she could do that if she read the book of mormon. I then told her that any verse in the BOM can apply to her life. So i had her open to a random page and point to a verse. It was a blank book of mormon; nothing was marked. She began to read the first few words and cried. the verse was Alma 42:29. It talked about how she shouldn't be troubled anymore about any of her worries. It was incredible. God is good, and miracles are real. Have a good week. I love you all.

Sister Sperry