I freakin' love brasil

I freakin' love brasil. 

The food is weird but good here. Rice and beans for every meal. But it~s way good. Pão de queijo* for breakfast. Guaraná every day. Desserts are always gelatinous in some way. *Translation: Cheese bread

Cockroaches everywhere. It rains a lot. SB and I have our own bathroom and we~re the only ones in our room rn*.  *Right now

*I asked her about the difference in the keyboard:

As you can see, the key that is normally an apostrophe is now the thing that makes letters nasalized. Like in the word amanhã. The shift key is smaller to fit all of these other keys. Mostly accents and the ç button and stuff. It~s annoying. Also, the language is português so this is saying that every word I type is wrong. Lol. 

We do splits here. AKA, we trade our companion for a brasileira and then everyone teaches each other. My splits companion is from Rio Grande do Sul, the state in which I will be serving! É muito legal*. She is very excited for me. Don't remember her name, sorry. Amanhã**. (*Translation: She's very Cool.) (**Translation: Tomorrow.)

Sao Paulo Lds Temple

We went to the São Paulo temple today. Out of all the temples I~ve been to, it~s definitely one of my favorites. SO beautiful. We boarded vans as districts and drove the hour to the temple. I got to sit in front and chat with the drivers. It~s very fun. They're very considerate of my poor understanding. It~ll get better soon, I hope.

I really enjoy the brasileiros. Some of my favorites are Elders Zuza and Araujo. EA is super nice and has decent english so he can tell me how to say a lot of stuff. EZ and I joke around a lot. Brasileiros really like their jokes and their fun. I love it. I think I am a brasileira at heart. The first time I joked around, I got them so good because they didn~t expect me to joke with them because the only white people they~ve met didn~t take things the right way. Anyway, it was awesome. 

Soccer has been banned for all missionaries of brazilian missions. NO ONE can play it. I~~m pretty darn jealous of those other south american missions. Ugh. Guess I'm not coming home pro at futebol as planned. 

VOLLEYBALL IT IS.

I'm not sure what the address is here. No one ever gets mail here (so sad!). I'll try and look later when I have time.

I got the pictures you sent! I love them!! Andy is such a goof. :}   Thanks for sending them! 

Our CTM prez is awesome. He~s the one that put in all the footnotes for the portuguese bible and finished it this year. my district was the first one to get the new bibles. We~re super special. ;) Also, he~s the recorded voice of HF in the temple. 

Some miracles this week: 

So, we teach "investigators" (our teachers) and their job is to make things pretty difficult but to also ask questions that are like investigators they taught on their missions. Well this week, we committed both to baptism. With my Provo teachers*, we never got there. It's one of the best feelings ever to have someone to commit to come closer to Christ. I can't even imagine what it's like to do it for real. I'm so excited for that day. Anyway, the miracle is that we are FINALLY teaching great lessons again. In provo, I was feeling like our lessons were getting worse and worse. When we got here, SB and I have been working so well with each other. I'm so glad she's my companion. Teaching is SO FUN. I love when our investigators ask questions because it shows that they're truly listening and wanting to change. Also, I'm still really impatient when it comes to my portuguese. I just want to be fluent now. Well we had a fantastic class about the gift of tongues this week and following the Spirit and it was exactly what I needed and had been praying for. I'm so glad that we have a loving Heavenly Father that gives us the answers if we ask for them. Whenever we teach, we always have to ask the investigator to pray to know for themselves because that's the only way we can be converted. I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers if we pray with sincere hearts and real intencão. (Moroni 10:4-5). *They were only there a week and a half though.

Other stuff happened this week but a) I can't remember and b) they're basically shoving us out of the computer lab.

Scriptures are awesome. Prayer is awesome. O dom de línguas* is real. This gospel is awesome. Tchau! (*Translation: The gift of tongues)

Miss you all so much!!!! Muitos beijos*! xoxoxoxxox (*Translation: Many kisses)

Até*! (*Translation: Later)

-Sister Hartman

Remembering fall at the Provo MTC

The picture I sent her of Andy, the insta-pirate