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!!!"

Straight outta São Paulo

What´s gucci and Tudo Bem?!? This week was so fun and way less stressful than last. So first of all, São Paulo drivers are crazy! There are literally no rules, and in one lane of traffic there could be a motorcycle, longboarder, and giant SUV all side by side. Motorcycles weave in and out and there are THOUSANDS of them everywhere. #squadgoals #fastandfurious8. Anyway, on Thursday, all of the new missionaries went to the police station to do something for our visas. We needed our IDs and our passports were locked up at the CayTayeMay (CTM but portuguese ya know), and I left my TX drivers license at home so I really needed my passport for this procedure. They told me a man named Diego would be bringing our passports, and long story short, Diego got in a MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT IN THE RAIN!!! Poor Diego!! He´s okay!! But we didn´t hear from him for an hour, our drivers ditched, and everyone else had to go upstairs, so my companheira and I j chilled for a long time... we couldn´t communicate with anyone effectively in charge because we had not learned the correct words in Portuguese yet, and there were tons of people in handcuffs just walking in and out with police officers of course. It was a good time!! Diego finally made it, and I did not get
deported!!

Ok so I have a problem, all of the wild dogs here are so cute!! I want to pet them all, but apparently they´ll bite you! Such a dilemma. I don´t know how it got to this point, but one time during exersize I went "ruff!" and all of these dogs barked back!! It was so cool! I have a gift!!

Also, Gabolice in Portuguese means swag, but it´s not a thing in Brazil at all. Most of the Brazilians have never heard it and I have to show them in the dictionary, but they still don´t really get it until I tell them about the Justin Bieber song that says "3,2, Swag" and "swaggggie" and they´re like OOOHHHH gabolice!!! S/o Justin Bieber for helping me make new friends.

Last Wednesday we had to take our "dork dots" off our name tags (colored dots on our tag that indicate we are newbies or first weekers), so naturally Presidente Swenson would walk up to my row and ask me to say a prayer in front of the CTM in Portuguese! I was shaking, but I´m glad I could get over that fear because I´ll be doing it all day everyday!

My district great! Everyone is so hilarious, and I´m glad I´m surrounded by people that make me laugh 25/8. The only bad news of the week is that we´re splitting! I´ll miss my seeeesters soooo much! The only people that have to go are a sister companionship, and one Elder from a trio! Our district is so tight, and we´re all really sad to be breaking up. I really do have so much fun here, and all of language training, exhaustion, and overall life adjustments have been made so much easier with God´s help. I´ve noticed in the moments when I do get upset, I´ve felt an outpouring of love from Heavenly Father. This is where I´m supposed to be! I love you all! Have the best week! xoxo


...other comments Mallory made in separate emails....

...We just got back from the Sao Paulo temple. The inside is amazing! Stained glass everywhere... it didn´t look like real life. For some reason when I walked in to the celestial room it reminded me of walking in and seeing you and dad and ....

...I say obrigada to everything!! I've almost forgot  the English word 'thank you.'  It´s also getting harder to say prayers in English. I play volleyball every day too!! My arm is sore from serving.  Someone told me I have to start under-handing my serve because they were coming in too fast.   In my head I was like `" I'm sorry I thought this was volleyball???"

benções on benções (blessings on blessings)

TUDO BEM, fam?!?!!

I'm so sorry because I dont have any time this week so this is going to be really jumpy, and also this keyboard is so
confusing, and I can´t hit enter, but at least I have !!!!!!!! marks!!!!!!!

Ok so I´m finally a seeeeester!!!! On my first day I learned the day 1 classic banger "cabeca, ombros, joelhos, and dedos" or
"heads, shoulders, knees, and toes...", and the first day was an absolute blur so that´s all I really remember!! And learning a ton of
portuguese, and all of that fun stuff!! I feel like I´ve been here for years. In the words of Jason Derulo,"been around the world don´t
speak the language".

By the second DAY, we started teaching lessons in portuguese. We teach a lesson everyday in portuguese, and everyday my
brain hurts!! However, I´ve learned more in portuguese than I ever thought I could in a week, and that´s only because I know God is helping me. I can understand about 90 percent of what American speakers say, but the Brazilians talk soooo fast!

One of my favorite things is playing volleyball everyday! Whenever anyone messes up we yell "QUE ISSOOO"... the CTM´s version of "what are thooose?!"

Saturday was really hard for me because the exhaustion/stress of learning a new culture/language caught up to me. I´ve had the worst
cold all week. I was reading in Mark 4 verses 38-40 when Jesus calms the seas, and he says to his disciples "why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" That´s something I try to ask myself everytime I get discouraged with the language. He will always help us! Some of my favorite phrases in portuguese are "esquadra metas" (squad goals), "serio?" (really?) you can say it to just about anytime when you don´t know what´s going on.....and just yelling seeeester in general is fun. The Brazilians say it the cutest way. I have awesome Brazilian roommates who are the kindest/most Christlike girls! They teach me all the slang lingo so I can hopefully someday be in the know with the locals?!

According to the CTM Presidente Swenson, the CTM is holding the most missionaries right now since he´s been here.
There are about 400 of us! On sunday night we sang "Called to Serve" and it was so energetic and powerful. All of of the Elders were trying to wipe their tears quickly, but A SCHEMER KNOWS A SCHEMER. I see everything!! lolz. Seriously though, it was so beautiful! It let me know I was in the right place.

S/o miss Julianna Brassfield!! Happy early birthday GF! ALSO, if any of you know any brazilian soccer team facts PLZ send them to me!! I need new bonding material besides,"Neymar esta caliente?" jk but really. Today we went to the Campinas
Temple, and it was the most beautiful Temple I´ve ever been to. It overlooks all of campinas, and I´m in awe of this beautiful country
i´m in!! This week has been the hardest ever, but God changes my heart everyday, and it gets easier. I love yáll, and thank you so much for your sweet emails! I´m going to try super hard to write you all back this week!!! SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL OF YOU! Also, mom my cheetah pj´s were a hit you were so right!

ok XOXO, Sister Moon.

June 13, 2015

I report to the Brazil CTM on October 14, 2015! I can hardly wait.