Group email from 1/26/15

HEY!! EVERYONE!! 

I know I jus emailed, but our email day is normally mondays and when I got here it was on a transfer so we email on thursdays on transfers. so next week it will be monday again!

me and my comp are opening a new area, and that is hard for two reasons, so the area was closed in the first place because no one wanted to talk and listen, and so that is a problem. and then the other problem is i cant understand or speak.. so that should hopefully start getting easier. 

i already see small and simple progress, it isnt much, but i know that the longer i am here and the more i try and speak the better i am going to get at the langauge. 

i already feel a little more confident, and try a little more. it is just hard to try and talk when everyone is speaking so fast and i dont know what is going on. but this week i have faith it will be easier. 

we had lunch with the bishop and his family after church yesterday and i was asked to give the thought at the end, and i was so nervous and stuttered over my words alot, but i got a message out and everyone was so excited. 

we went contacting and looking for people to talk to and it was great cause we had a member with us, his name is jose and he is the best! he is an older guy and has been a member for almost a year and he LOVES the missionaries and helping in any way that he can. 

there is another older guy here, he has been a member for about 2 months and he loves the missionaries to, he sat next to me during chruch and passed me candy the whole time haha. 

i love these people. so i know the language will come fast cause of my disire to communicate with them all. 

i dont ahve alot of time for lots of pics.. but this is what i have time to upload. these computers are slow so ill send more next week!! i dont even know what pics are on here.. sorry. 

I AM IN THE FEILD!!

I AM IN THE FEILD!! how did this time actually come, i have no idea, i seriously feel like i just got into the CTM and how I am a "real" missionary. this week was good, it was really hard leaving sister Illu, and the rest of my district, but luckily i got to fly to Natal with three of the elders in my district so that saved me. I would have died if I didnt fly with them.

The first night was SUPER overwhelming, I was the only american sister for a really long time. and then a group of sisters who were leaving showed up at the mission home, there were two americans, but they both spoke portuguese. one sister, Sister Flemming, sat by me at dinner and spoke to me in english and anwered all my questions and then said the whole "it gets better and easier talk" right now i think shes crazy, but i have faith it will get easier. That night we had a small apartment with like 20 sisters in it.. and i was the only one who didnt speak portuguese. you know that outgoing crazy arrie you all know.. yeah..I am not that here. yet. 

then i got my trainer, she is really nice, her name is sister Moreles, she is a brazillian. she is really sweet and SUPER paticent. so far at least. she has trained 2 americans before me so she understands where i am coming from a little. i feel a little behind in the language but that should hopefully all change with time. all the american missionaries i have talked to in my mission say the first week is SUPER hard, then the first three months are hard, and then it is easier. so i am just going to have to wait that out and study hard. 

we are living in an apartment with two other girls, sister rios is one of them and she speaks fluent english. she lived in DC for a year and a half so that is really nice, she has helped me alot with translating and stuff. my trainer speaks a little bit of english too, she helps me and i help her. she REALLY helps me. 

it is really hot here, haha like 110 degrees, so thats really different, i have been drinking water bottles like crazy, the hard thing is you have to buy all the water so i feel like water will be an expensive thing for me. but is is worth it. 

i am really excited and really nervous, we are opening a new area so we are looking for all new investogators. that is going to be interesting, i dont know how to do that really, so i am following my trainer around like a little puppy dog. 

she only has 3 more months on her mission and she will spend those last three months training me, so i have to learn the language fast and make it a good last three months for her.

im working hard, in the heat! dont worry about me, I love you guys so much and miss you all so much. 

xoxox

sister hernandez

More photos from Sister Herbert

Group email 1/16/15

for those of you who have been in the ctm, you know. and for those of you who havent been in the ctm, ill tell you .. your days go STUDY STUDY STUDY. haha so i dont have alot to tell this week. BUT. we still have a really good time. the laguage is going good, i mean i leave next week and i am super exctied but super nervous cause ill probably have a brazllian trainer who doesnt speak english. so pray for me pleaseseee!!

 

the missionaries here are amzaing, we got more missionaries going to natal so now it isnt just the three elders in my district and me going.

 

i am in a trio again, with sister scott, and in all our lessons we allways look to her to pray, so in one of our lessons this week she was sick of it and made me do it. sister illu was doing everything she could to not start laughing during my whole prayer.

 

this week our air conditioner broke and i dont think i have ever been so hot in my life. i was drinking waterbottles by the min. BUT they moved us to a different room so we got air back. seriously for days we just sat there and said portuguese words while fanning eachother. and it didnt help that the hottest days of the week were the days we had no air. BUT I LIVED. and everyone again just laughed at me cause tehy said i havent seen nothing yet, wish me luck in that 130 degree weather in natal haha.

 

i spoke on sunday, in portuguese. it was so scary. even thought it was only in front of my zone i was still shaking way bad. but sister illu and sister soctt said it was fine. everyone always teases me cause no matter how broken my portuguese is i will try and ALWAYS find a way to get my point accross. even if it is acting it out. haha its alot of fun down here. but the foods getting old.. but i am sure next week i am going to miss it BAD.

 

i am so excited and so sad to leave the MTC, i have made so many friends that it makes me sad to leave them all, but at the same time i am excited to go out there and do this stuff for real. so this week will be full of sad goodbyes but exciting hellos!

 

i love you!!

xoxo

sister hernandez

Photos

Sadly one of Arrie's companions had to come home to Draper due to health issues. She was emailed us some photos today because the computers at the Brazil MTC won't let Arrie upload photos. It sure looks like she's having a little fun on top of all the hard work she's doing.

when i leave the ctm

the rain here is the craziest thing i have ever seen. it is like the notebook rain and goes for like an hour or longer and it is amazing. me and sister herbert always try and go sneak and play in it.. but then someone always comes and says we cant.. sad. it was a little sad this week cause a bunch of my favoirte brazillians left to the feild! but the nice thing is we got MORE cool braizillains and half of them are going to natal and i swear the other half are from natal. and they speak SO FAST. but, i know that i can catch up with them soon. the language isnt perfect but it is coming, today at the temple all the natives i talked to i understood 80 percent of what they were saying, and i could REPLY. that was a mericle. the giftts of toungs is real! i can teach lessons with no notes now too!!

well last week i forgot to tell about the most exciting part of my week! We went prosolyding, (that is spelled way wrong) but we went into the central part of brazil and were each given 2 books of mormon and were told to give them away. so me sister herbert and sister illu made a goal that we were going to give them all away. sister herbert and sister illu both looked at me before we went and were like.. `youre going to talk to everyone right cause we are to nervous to approach strangers..` haha SO, that was my job, to approach strangers. as you can imagine it wasnt that hard, the first guy we went up to had SO many questions.. and i seriously did NOT know what he was saying.. so i handed him the book and showed him the intro and said `all your questions should be answered here` then we walked by later and he was reading it so that was pretty cool! we gave them all away.. and when we said bye to some guy he grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek.. haha i didnt know what to do, and then he went to kiss sister illu and she got super awkward and ducked away from him haha! welcome to brazil right.. everyone is SUPER friendly.

this week we went to the fedrel police department to get our brazil id's and to be fingerprinted and stuff. when i got done the instuctor siad that i could go across the street and get some thing called a cuxina, a breaded thing with chicken in it. so me and elder bean, balaich, olsen, greener, helm, sister illu, herbert and soctt. all went over. when we were eating outside this african guy came up to us and started talking.. but he spoke french. so we had 3 languages we couldnt speak to eachother. well he was a dancer who traveled all over the world doing dances, and so he started dancing for us, and then singing, and then he taught us a song and made us all sing it together. then it got funny, he stared at me and sang for a solid 2 minutes.. without breaking eye contact. haha it was funny but so amazing. the people here are so amazing. i am so in love with every single one of them.

i am so thankful to be here, i dont think there would be a better fit mission for me then brazil. me and all these brazillians all become friends so fast!! I am super excited and nervous to go out to the feild. But, i know i will learn alot and it will be amazing. i cant beileve i have already been gone for 4 weeks and that i only have 2 weeks here. i am so comfortable here now, it is like a home away from home. The food is a little questionable.. but the days we get chicken are like chistmas morning.

Thank you everyone for all the support and love, i am sorry that i dont have tons of cool stories, we are in the classroom alot and so you dont wanna hear about all those lessons on verbs haha! (wink)

Love,

sista heranndez

Group email 1/2/15

New Years was alot different for me this year haha! no parties or dancing for me. we had a good time thought and went to bed at 1030. they shoot off fireworks here non stop for like 4 hours. and they were so loud. i ended up sleeping fine and that was a mericle but my comp said she was up all night cause she couldnt sleep. all the fireworks sound like gunshots... or maybe they are gunshots.. JUST KIDDING! but seriously sometimes i cant tell haha.  We got two new missionaires from provo in our district this week. Sister Scott and Elder Baliach, Elder Baliach is the same week as us and going to NATAL!!! so we know have 4 of the 8 of us going to Natal cause it is the best mission in brazil haha. and once he got here he said (do you know a sister knapp) and i said yes and he was like (she said hi, i ran into her into the bookstore and when she found out i was serving in natal she freaked out and told me to tell you hi) i seriously got way more happy then i shoulda. haha i found out this week that it gets as hot at 130 degrees out there. one of the instructors that comes into our classroom alot served there and said it gets SUPER HOT. and everytime i tell someone that is where i am serving they always without fail laugh and say that it is so hot and that i am giong to come back black. (I am sorry i am not putting these into paragraphs and there is no smiles. the return button doesnt work and i dont know how to make a smile.. BUT I AM HAPPY!) This week we had some serious funny moments while teaching in a trio.. and this will show you how the language goes sometimes too. first it started in TRC (they record thoes lessons so you can watch them over) my comp sister illu was sharing a scripture in Enos and she was saying enos.. enos.. enos.. ANUS.. trying to pronouce it right.. and i am 5 years old and started to giggle.. then i looked over and sister herbert and she just had her hand over her face and was seriously doing EVERYTHING she could to old it together and not loose it in the lesson. i seriously didnt talk for like 3 min cause i knew if i opened my mouth i was giong to loose it. we watched the video after and i was SO obvious. but in brazil that isnt a word so the guy was just looking at me and sister herbert like we were crazy.. thats what teaching members is for here in the MTC right? to get that practice so that in the feild that doesnt happen. This week was a little sad cause my two favorite districts (besides my own) both left into the feild, one was a group of 13 boys and the other had a trio of sisters and our zone leaders. they were all so amazing. it was hard saying bye but they are going to do so great, and hopefully they can let me know how the language is outside of here. some of my friends got to spend new years in RIO. so thats really cool haha! my district have now become some of the oldest Americans here. we have one other district that is above us in our zone and they leave this week so that is going to be crazy werid. I feel like my language wasnt coming along super well, but when the new missionaries came from provo we were all talking, and they know a little more gospel words then us, but we all know a TON more conversation words and can talk with brazilians easier. i think that was a huge part of being in the brazil MTC that has helped cause i talk with brazillians everyday. we sit with them at meals and work out with them. they are all become such good friends to me I love it. and we can hardly communicate. i cant imagine how good of friends il lbe with them once we can actually talk. so many of them said that they want to come visit me once i ge home cause they all want to come to utah. there is a sister here names sister hernandez, shes in the spanish zone, but she is seriously.. maybe 4 ft 7. so small. and she is my little sister out here. we tell everyone we are sisters who were swtiched at birth. haha. my comps always laugh at me cause the brazillians like me so much. i think it is cause when i talk to them im really loud (like them) and i act out what i am trying to say soo i look crazy.. haha. i think sister illu is going to be my lifelong friend forever. seriously we are two peas in a pod. i am so thankful i got such an amazing comp to start me off. we tell eachtoher everything and can communcate with a look.. who woulda thought that after only 3 weeks huh? its the constant together thing. the language is coming alot, i do full lessons with only scripture referances now. THATS HUGE. i still dont get everything accross that i would like to, but me and sister illu have a way of bringing the spirit in so it doesnt really matter cause you can feel what i want to say.. if that makes any sense. dont worry about me here! i am good.. the food is weird and we eat meat like its water but i have started eating mainly fruits and stuff and a little meat cause they just do way to much.. but the elders love it haha. i miss you guys and love you all so much. i hope this emails isnt annoying to read without paragraphs. I LOVE YOU GUYS. i think about you all all the time. and pray for you like 50 times a day cause thats how much missionaries pray haha. remeber to make some goals this new year and to be a better person then you were last. thats the whole motto here. you cant change yesterday, and cant preditct tomorrow, so just do what you can now. I LOVE YOU. sista hernandez (arrie) haha it is still weird saying sister to me haha.

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