Friday, May 25, 2012

Mission Log: May 25, 2012


So. It's official. I'm in the intermediate Spanish class. Want to know what that means? It means that my MTC life got turned upside down and that I'm still here for 9 weeks. I have a new companion, Hermana King. She's lived lots of places (including central Florida) but right now she's claiming Alabama AND she went to BYU-I. She is so incredibly sweet and our teaching styles work well together. I also have a new room at the MTC. I live with my companion and then 3 other sisters, two of them are from Mexico so I hear a lot more Spanish now. I have a new district, a new zone, and a new branch. And I have a new P-day, which is why I am able to e-mail home twice this week.
My new teachers (Hermano Johnson and Hermano Walton) make fun of me all the time, because whenever I think I'm starting to speak Spanish and get really excited they have to break my heart by telling me that I was actually just speaking Portuguese again. But hey, good news I actually know a lot more Portuguese than I ever gave myself credit for. Funny how that has decided to manifest itself now of all times. My branch President served his mission in Brazil, worked at BYU for 32 years teaching Portuguese, and served as mission president in Brazil so he and I speak sometimes. He asked me if I wanted to move to the advanced Spanish class so that I can get out of the MTC in 3 weeks. I laughed.
My new district is great. The boys...I mean elders...are really funny and easy to get along with. Sometimes they sing more rap than they should, but we're all getting along well. In different ways I see my little brother in each of them, which makes it easy to love them...and to tease them, and to tell them to shape up.
I still haven't learned how not to refer to myself as "Jari" which gets me a lot of weird looks, especially when I introduce myself incorrectly to our mock investigators. Oh well, I really like my name. I can't help if I like to hear it every once in a while. But I'm sure I'll start refering to myself as "Hermana Santos" at some point.
There isn't too much else that is exciting around here. Although, I would like to say to all you crazies who promised me happiness on chicken cordon bleu day, y'all are liars. It was straight up awful. The salad and wrap station though, they are glorious.
OH!!! I met someone after my own heart yesterday, in the wrap line actually, he's half Portuguese and is learning Spanish. So basically we have the exact same problem of understanding really easily but sounding like idiots whenver we open our mouths. So glad that I'm not alone.
We got a new batch of missionaries yesterday. One of my efy boys is here now. Horray Elder Jimmy Davidson! He's going to be a fantastic missionary. It's so crazy that less than a year ago he was at SVU playing guitar and leading our group at game night. Oh how things have changed.
By the way, thank you thank you THANK YOU to all who have written me letters or dear elder letters (www.dearelder.com is pretty much the greatest thing ever!). It's really nice to hear things from the outside world. I try to respond quickly, so if you haven't received anything from me go yell at your mailman because I promise I've written you back.
That's all for now. Love you all.
Hermana Santos

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