Hey!

 

I know I have only been here a few days, but we got a few minutes to email today.  The person who was on this computer before me seems to have changed all the punctuation to foreign stuff, so I probably wont be using much punctuation.  Now that I have an opportunity to write, I really dont know what to say.  I made it alive!  My first day was super overwhelming, but we seem to be settling into some sort of routine, so things are getting less stressful, although I am always tired. 

 

My companion (Sister Keenan) and I had our first discussion with an investigator today, even though it was only our second morning here.  We had to do it 100% in Portuguese, so it was a little rough.  Im really glad that it was just an actor, otherwise we totally would have lost that potential convert.  It was really frustrating because we knew what we wanted to say, but we were having trouble translating it all.  Shockingly, we have not become completely fluent in less than 48 hours.  Still, it was cool how much we WERE able to say.  We probably sounded like we were two years old, but at least there was some sort of conversation flow.  He asked us how long we had been speaking the language (in Portuguese of course, nobody ever speaks in English) and we didnt even know how to say two.  We just held up two fingers and he was like oohhh, dois.  And we were like sim, sim!  And then he was like dois o que... (two what).  And we were like OH, two days!  I think he understood at that point why we sounded like idiots. :)  Anyways, it was quite the learning experience.

 

Ive probably gained at least 5 pounds in the past two days.  You wouldnt think that sitting all day would make you so hungry, but it really does.  I stuff my face every meal and still manage to be hungry by the next one.

 

Im sorry, but I dont know any addresses other than my house and my old apartment, so if anybody wants me to write them, they need to write me first so I can get their address.  Sorry that this email is pretty short and not very full of details, but I only have a couple minutes, and this keyboard is sticky...

 

Sister Peart