CTM: Week 6 (Tchau CTM e Olá Campo!)

Olá Todo Mundo!   

                                       

Well, it's my last week at the CTM which has been a combination of awesome and crazy. I'm trying to get all of the potuguês in my head that I can before I'm with a brazilian companion and out in the world-- essentially lose the CTM safety net. I'm pretty much pumped though. I'm so excited to finally go out to São Paulo (Sul) Sucesso! I'm going to miss my district so much though. They're basically my family. Good thing that 3 of the elders and my companion are coming to São Paulo Sul with me!

I don't have many stories this week that wouldn't require some huge amount of context or a literal video, but I did have an awesome week, especially Thanksgiving! They don't celebrate  Thanksgiving in Brasil, but they do at the CTM for us Americans. I went to breakfast that morning and literally the most Thanksgiving decorations in my LIFE. Orange and gold balloons everywhere with turkeys and flowers and thanksgiving tablecloths. There was even a balloon arch. It was basically amazing. It was also definitely the first time I ever had rice and beans along with all the Thanksgiving food. #brasil #loveit

  

I do really love the CTM and all my instructors and all of my district. We had a devotional on Thursday about gratitude. That really is one of the biggest keys to having joy. When we're grateful, we see past the annoying things that in the end don't matter very much at all. We can't change our situations all the time, but we can try to change our outlook. I'm so grateful for this experience that I'm having here and the opportunity I have to be a missionary for Jesus Christ here in Brasil. I'm grateful for all of the rough patches I've been through to get me here because I know I can help people so much more who are going through those things now. I'm grateful that I've had those hard experiences because in the end they've made me a better person. I know that God has a plan for me and that those hard things fit into His plan. Whenever I've trusted Him and persevered through them, I've gotten exactly what I've needed to or ended up exactly where or who I needed to be at exactly the right time. God's plan works a lot better than our own even if we can't see the end. I'm so grateful that I can pray and read the scriptures and receive answers to know my next step in that plan.

Next email will be from the field. Não posso esperar! Estou muito animada para ser míssionaria!

Love, Sister Hansen

CTM: Week 5 ("Pronta Para SAÌR!")

Hello Everyone!

Not much is new here at the CTM. I'm still loving it and I'm still learning português. How are things back in MA and at BYU? Let me know! I am at the point though where I'm ready to just get out! I'll miss my district and the people here, but I'm ready to go and help real people change their lives. I'm so excited. I have a lot of português to learn this last week though. (Ahhh!)

Here were some of the highlights from this week:

- This one's for you Liz. In português, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is "Diário do um Banana." Hilarious, right? Banana also can mean a dynamite stick in português. Who knew?

- Windows here at the CTM open from the bottom, and one of the many times I was laughing hysterically here, I went to lean against a window and IT WASN'T LOCKED. I literally almost fell out the window. One of the scariest seconds of my life. Good thing I have Sister Curtis!
- The thunder storms here are crazy! It'll be all sunny one second and then pouring with lightning the next. I love it! (I probably won't like it walking out in São Paulo though.)

- Our district decided which animal and food everyone would be, and I'm an apple and a beaver. I guess I work too hard here. Hahaha! My district definitely thinks I'm more focused than I really am. They caught me at a good time because I really AM focusing because I'm doing stuff I really do care about a lot!. (Don't make fun of me, but I literally have earplugs that I sometimes wear in the classroom when everyone's getting a bit too rowdy. #dork)

Spiritual Thought: I've learned a lot about love while I've been here, especially about charity, the pure love of Christ. Love is powerful. Look at what Christ did for us because He loved us. Jesus Christ suffered and died for us and our sins and all of our trials, the hardest thing that anyone has ever had to do. Charity, His pure love, for God and for us was the only thing that could have motivated him to do something like that. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Moroni exhorts us to pray with all the energy of our hearts that we can have this love. This love that has motivated me to learn português and give up 18 months to others. This love that has motivated God and Jesus Christ to do everything for us. This love that can make you a better, happier person. And now, no way could we ever deserve or earn this love. It's a simply a gift to those who ask for it and who are prepared to use it. One things I love about this gospel is that we never are required to be perfect or expected to be good enough; we simply do what we can and God will work with us at a pace we are able to handle. He has the perfect plan for us and He knows all of the details down to the day. He knows how to make us happier and how to make us better. All we have to do is choose to follow that plan, by praying to know what we need to do next and acting on the answers and feelings we receive. I know that as I've been praying for this pure love, I've received more and more. This has been such a blessing in my life, and it has helped me focus on others more. I've been able to become more like Christ and focus on others' afflictions while I've been wading through my own. 

Love you ALL,

Sister Hansen

CTM: Week 4 (Preachers in São Paulo)

Hello Again!                                              

So first things first, we got a new elder in our district, Elder Toronto. We told him that he spoke basically fluent English for a Canadian. (He's from Pennsylvania. We're so funny. Ha!) He's from the Provo MTC and speaks Português pretty well! I love him, all 6'4" of him! Haha!  

So this week we started our first real "jejums de inglês" (English fasts-- basically we try to only speak Português.) We started Sunday and have kinda failed since then, but I'm trying to end strong. I've learned so much Português in 3 weeks. It's crazy!

Here's a funny story: So we have choir practices on Sundays (everyone is a part of the choir.) There were these Spanish speaking Elders behind us, and they were hilarious. Part of the song

was in English, so it was kind of fun to hear about the equivalent of what I sound like in Português. One of the elders was saying "earth-lie" instead of earthly, and another thought the mezto forte dynamic was a part of the lyrics. Ha! After they master the English pronunciation, they started saying stuff like "I'm American," "MacDonauds," "Berger Keen." My favorito though was this: "You awr too handsome" "Thanks, me too." Hahaha! The CTM is the best!

We got to do a great thing on Wednesday: actually go outside the CTM building! (We only usually get to on Fridays.) Sometime on your fourth week, everyone goes out to some part of the city to actually do some missionary work--- not just practice. (I just need to put this here. 2 things I've noticed about São Paulo: graffiti everywhere and crazy driving. We seriously applaud these bus drivers sometimes! They'll stop a perfect 2 inches away from the car in front of them, barely dodge the motorcycles swearing through traffic, and back into the CTM parking lot on the tiniest baby  street! GOOD THING I won't be driving here.) So when we go out, we talk to people and give away Book of Mormons. It was so great to see how happy people were to get them. Sister Curtis and I got 6. We gave the first three away to this sweet old lady (she was a member of the church! How hilarious is that?! I'm pretty sure she said she stopped going though.), a really

really grateful homeless man, and a cute little family of 4 with the cutest little 3 year old I've ever seen! Then things got funky.

So after those three, we felt pretty confident and we went up to this man who turned out to be a

Jehovah's witness. We weren't able to get anything out before he started talking at us and we tried to talk but half of the time we had no idea what he was saying. We kept trying to get away, but he just kind of followed us. Then some other guy came up and we thought, "Oh perfect! We'll just talk to this guy." Turns out he was a preacher who tried to convince us and the JW that he saw Jesus. Just as we started to get worried and we literally couldn’t defend anything they were saying against us in Português, Irmão Mello swooped in and saved us. Then it started to POUR. (Biggest drops of rain I have ever felt in my life within 30 seconds.) We were able to escape. Tender mercies!

Then it was basically time to go and we still had 3 Book of Mormons. The hispanic sisters we so so sweet and helped us give them away within 2 minutes. I love those sister so much. We hang

out with them all the time.

One guy in our district, Elder Chandler (the sweetest 18-year-old I think I've ever met. He'd probably wouldn't call himself that, but I'm going to anyway) had a great experience. He and his

companion gave away a Book of Mormon to this old man, and later they walked by and saw him reading and smiling. He said that that we the happiest he's probably ever been in his LIFE! That's why we're here: to make others happy by bringing them closer to God and Jesus Christ. I've seen this gospel change people's lives. It is amazing blessing to me that I have this knowledge and this church in my life. What I have been given is way worth me sacrificing these 18 months of my life. I can't wait to give other people this kind of joy.

See ya next week,

Sister Hansen

Post Script

Other fun things mom: Halloween isn't really a holiday in Brazil, plus we're missionaries so we can't dress up. Our district decided we were the mystery scooby doo team though. I was wearing the same colors as the van! So I dressed up as a van for Halloween. That's a first.

Other fun thing: I've started wearing earplugs during study time because everyone (especially the Elders) are so distracting. I'm the biggest dork, but I'm a Portuguese speaking dork! Ha!" ‪

#‎mymissionaryisadorkable‬

CTM: Week 3 "Aprendando Português Rapidamente!"

Hello Everyone!  

I love being here at the CTM. It's great. My district (our group of Elders and Sisters) is pretty tight. We got two new Sisters this week from the Provo CTM, and holy cow, it's been nice to have a little less goofing around in the classroom (Sala de Aula.) We pretty much settled down and we're super great friends, but now we can also get some studying done.                                         

I'm worried for the new sisters a little though. At the Provo MTC, there's just not as much Português practice. You're in the US and you only practice with your instructor really. Here, I have to use it all the time. I'm learning so quickly. I'm loving all of the studying. Super weird, but I think my brain was having school withdrawals from a 6 month summer. The sisters will catch up quickly though. Being in Brazil with lots of Brazilians makes a huge difference.

Not much new stuff goes on at the CTM. It's basically training for being a missionary, so I'm not going to get all of the stories that I probably would in the field. I figured it might be nice for you guys to see a typical schedule while I'm here:

6:30 – Wake up

7:00 - Personal Study

7:30 - Breakfast

8:00 - Personal Study

8:30 - Practice Teaching and Preparing Lesson (We teach "Jéssica" who is
really Irmã Majory in disguise)

9:30 - Instructor Lessons (Irmã Majory)

11:30 - Additional Study and Practice

12:15 - Lunch

1:00 - Additional Study and Practice

1:30 - Practice Teaching and Preparing Lessons ('Luis")

2:15 - Instructor Lessons (Irmão Mello)

4:45 - Additional Study and Practice

5:15 - Dinner

6:00 - Physical Activity (We play Volleyball and it's SO FUN!) After this we either have a devotional, service, or more studying and planning for the rest of the day.

It's hard to get use to at first, but I do really love it. Although, I cannot wait to actually get out into BRASIL!!!

Spiritual Thought: Tuesday, we had a great devotional about scripture study. The scriptures can really change people's lives. There's this great quote by Ezra Taft Benson that goes something like this: "The world works from the outside in while God works from the inside out. The world would take the people out of the slums while the Lord would take the slums out of the people who could then take themselves out of the slums... People would change human behavior where God can change human nature." I love to think that I really can change, that I can become better. I love that there is such thing as infinite potential, and that we all have it! It makes me so sad to see people say that "it's just the way I am" or that "I can't change." I know that I'm not satisfied with where I am right now. I want to grow and change. I know that I can change my heart and all the bad parts of me through the gospel of Jesus Christ. His atonement and sacrifice for me doesn't just make up the difference between me now and the better me later; it makes ALL the difference. (LOOK UP BRAD WILCOX'S GRACE IS SUFFICENT TALK.) Through scripture study and prayer, we can access the atonement and change ourselves into the person we want to be. I've felt this.                                                     

Thanks for your emails. I love you guys!

Until next week, Sister Hansen