minha nossa (MY GOODNESS)

Mom! Dad! I´m alive! Hola everyone!

My pday was skipped because I´m in Fortaleza!!! Well I was for five days doing training, and now I´m in the cutest town about four hours inland called Limoeiro do Norte. I thought there could not be a hotter place in the world than Fortaleza, but 7 degrees from the equator does not mess around, and Limoeiro do Norte has ZERO BREEZE!!! But I´m ok!! lol. There are also rats the size of cats. They literally call them cats, and it´s been really difficult for me to adjust to the living conditions, but the people here are amazing. They have pure hearts, and are so humble and Christ-like. I´m so lucky to serve them.

The roads here are sand and cobble stone, so dirt road anthem is literally my anthem, and everyone has chickens!! It´s awesome. There are also horses, cows, and dogs just strolling accross the roads all the time. I love it. 

My companion´s name is Sister Sanchez and she is from Columbia. She does not speak any English, but we get by with the little Portuguese and very little Spanish I know. She is an amazing trainer, and I know I´ll be able to learn a lot from her. 

Limoeiro do Norte is a new area with not even a branch, but a group of about 15 people. We are teaching WONDERFUL people, so I´m excited to see this place grow! 

Oh ALSO, I tore my meniscus at the CTM... volley´d too hard I guess. It´s been rough because our area is so big, and we´re walking 20ish miles a day. My comp has a fit bit #yas. As difficult as this has been... like really difficult lol my testimony of putting trust in Heavenly Father has grown so much. I love Alma 26:12, "yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my own strength I am weak"... never has this been so #relatable! hahaha. But I love how it says "I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." 

President Fusco is MELHOR, even though he only gives us 40 minutes to email!!! #cryingemoji I really love him, and I´m so lucky to be in his mission! 

We didn´t have anything special for thanksgiving, but the night before all of the new missionaries had an amazing dinner at President Fusco´s home, so I´m counting that as my thanksgiving! This year thanksgiving was really put in perspective, and I´m very thankful for all of you! 

LOVE YOU ALL,

Seester Moon

don't be tardy for the party

Boa tarde friendz and fam! I can´t believe this is my last pday at the CTM! I´m beyond excited to get to Fortaleza, but I´ll miss the friends I made here so much-- and I´ll also miss the breakfast paninis!

I think I figured out why Brazil is so green and beautiful-- it rains all the time! Last night a literal tsunami hit São Paulo (not really, but enough to make the electricity go out a couple times) and we accidentally left our window open #blessed. Our room was soaked, but on the bright side, my suitcase takes less time to blow dry than my hair.

The other day I was talking to someone who left on Tuesday for their mission, and we were talking
about how even though we´ve been here for 5/6 weeks, it´s felt like years!! (in a good way lol). We were talking about the most important things we´ve learned so far, so I want to share a couple with y´all.

"Just because God is smiling on someone else, doesn´t mean he´s frowning on you". Learning Portuguese and so much about the gospel in such a short amount of time is challenging, and when I wasn't fluent within the first two weeks #theimpossibledream, I was really upset. I felt like other people were picking it up out of thin air, and it was discouraging, but now I feel that it was because I needed to learn to trust that Heavenly Father would help me. I don´t think he´s ever frowning on us-- just waiting for us to ask for help.

"Pagar o Preço/Remember who´s time you´re on"- These are written on our board in our class room, and they´re kind of cheesy. I love what they´ve come to mean though! Picture the vine of the little girl crying/saying that she needs a nap, and that´s my brain at least once a day. But when I look at the board, I remember that Jesus Christ payed the price for me and all of the people I´ll teach, and everyone in the world, and ALSO the next 17 months are not my time for naps. Whenever I remember this, I feel like I have more energy to learn & #werk.

6 more days until I´m a real Brasiliera in Fortaleza!! Paz e Bênçõas, Sister Moon

Não Zona de Cabo #theyknowbetta

Olá friends and family! 

We got to go proselyting this week in the middle of São Paulo! It was definitely the best part of the week/CTM. I was so shocked afterwards that we were having conversations in portuguese! People in Brazil are SO. NICE. I was expecting people to be busy or in a rush, but everyone was so friendly and kind. The best part was walking away and seeing them read the Book of Mormon. I still have so much Portuguese to learn, but I´m excited to get to Fortaleza!! #2weeks. 

Here are the top 10 funny/bizzare things of the week:

1. Everytime I open my dictionary, my eyes go straight to the word "village". I miss that place!! S/o Lance S/o Village esquadra!! 

2. My Portuguese instructor is applying for Grad School, and she said "my meth is good, but I need help with my English" and as a class we repeated "math" and "meth" like five times for her, and she was like "it´s the exact same!" lolz I love Irma Araujo. 

3. One day a giant butterfly landed on my shirt and every time I would shew it away it would come back. I felt like Giselle or Snow White!! 

4. Speaking of bugs, my comp and I had just given a lesson on Sincere Prayers, so we were closing with a prayer on our knees, and a HUGE COCKROACH dive bombed my head!! I started swatting my hair profusely and it was just so typical because I studied humility last week. #literallynochillinbrazil 

5. We finally learned how to say command verbs, and during practicar I performed Meredith Grey´s famous monologue "love me, choose me, pick me" in Portuguese. (S/o shonda rhimes s/o mccall, lexi, brooke) 

6. Whenever my district says anything in English to each other my instructor points at the ceiling and fake cries to show us Heavenly Father cries when we speak English. It´s a savage technique, but it works! 

7. On Pday I experienced my first São Paulo MONSOON! My comp and I looked like we jumped in a pool. It was phire. 

8. This Elder in Sister Osborne and Sister Knoll´s District always makes a "34" with his fingers when sisters/elders are talking because in the #whitehandbook it´s the page about "relationships with others" and I think it is hilarious!! I love throwing people the 34! 

9. I started a humble brag book for my district-- if I had more time I´d give examples, but District 41-A does not have confidence issues!!! 

10. I´m so sad that another set of Brazilian roomies left. Sister Lima and Sister Brito are some of my favorite people ever! Sister Lima´s first name is Estela (star in Portuguese) and my last name is Moon, so were obviously meant to be besties! She is the Brazilian Sofia Vergara, and taught me to say so many sassy things in Portuguese! 

Eu Amo Vocês!! Paz e Bênçãos, and DOISES (throws a peace sign), Seester Moon

Como se diz... "I lost hair over this subject line"

Paz e bênçoãs fam!!! (peace n blessings)

A few of you have been worried about what I´m doing without sodalicious, but tudo bem because
I still have guanara and bueno bars!!!!

This week we watched a broadcast of the MTC devotional from Provo, and it was perrrrrfection! Neil L. Anderson spoke, HE GAVE A S/O TO FORTALEZA (his grandson is there and is having a lot of success..eeeep!!) and I want to share a little bit of it with yáll! He talked about four words: sacrifice, opposition, adversary, and deliverance. I wish I could just scan my notes because everything he said helped me so much, but the main point is that we´re going to face the first three words always.. on a mission or not on a mission! The good news is that we will always be delivered by Heavenly Father. My favorite story he told was about when he was a mission president in France. He said that he was very concerned about missionaries coming to him all the time saying, "why is learning this language so hard when I´m trying my best to learn it for something so good?" and "why am I feeling so much opposition?". Elder Anderson prayed about it, and he received this thought, "you don´t have to worry about their suffering-- you didn´t call them, I did. If they want to be relieved then have them come to me." I love this story because it´s so #relatable. My friends at the CTM can be there for me, and my professors can help me, but the only peace I really want/need comes from Jesus Christ. He has called each of us to do something right now, and even if it seems hard I promise that he will always always always help us. ALSO, both of our "investigators" are getting baptized! Even though it´s just practice, both moments were really cool. It felt like my companheira and I, Heavenly Father, and Luana/Wescley were all on the same page. I can´t wait to feel the same way, but outside the CTM and better!

Everything is tudo bem, and I´m really happy. It´s almost summertime here so it´s getting really buggy. Bugs are always in the showers (ew), but they crawl in to the cracks when I get in so at least they´re polite! #nochillinbrazil

Tchao Por Agora!! (chao for now), Seeeester Moon

This picture was found on the facebook page of missionties aka Mr. Cheney's cookies, an American Cookie store across the street from the mission training center (CTM).


p.s. a few other comments that Mallory made in some back and forth emails today....

"It's hard for me to speak awesome Portugese at meals, but when talking about gospel topics, it just comes to mind a little easier....It's all still super hard, but on Fast Sunday, we fasted for 24 hours and I fasted for help learning Portuguese and its coming a little easier this week."

"Something I've learned being here...Is that God won't take away your problems.  The point of having trials is to learn from them and mostly to lean to lean on The Lord."

"lolz today I bought a fanny pack from the buddha store and its pretty sweet. {Mom then responded with} "I think fanny packs are awesome!  It's the benefit a purse without having to carry it.  I wish they would totally come back in style.  I would wear one every day!!!"