CTM Life, Sundays, Solos & The Spirit

Family! Friends! etc, etc, Wow sounds like a whole lot’s been happening, almost more that around here haha. Mom I forgot last time but I’m so glad your glasses work! Thank heavens and they look great.

Ok, so I have learned that the accent down in Santa Maria is the Portuguese accent closest to Spanish because of its proximity to Argentina and Uruguay. Pretty cool for getting to talk with everyone back home who speaks Spanish but here in the CTM all of the teachers have the Sao Paulo accent so I’ll have to re-learn how to say a bunch of sounds in the field, “ta bom”. So everyday we have actividade fisica and there’s this little track that we have to run 3 laps on. Then we do some push ups and sit ups, etc. and then our district goes and plays volleyball for like 35 minutes.  Pretty much every day is awesome.

Sundays here are amazing, mostly because it really is a day of rest for us haha. We still have personal study in the morning then we go to our sacrament followed by elders quorum. Afterward, we have a district meeting and then while the leadership have another meeting the rest of us have free time which is super nice.  They play some different church movie every week but it’s all in Portuguese so our district normally just hangs out and sings hymns or something during that time. Then there’s the devotional and everyone in the CTM does choir practice and afterward we do some planning and go to bed (which by the way it is next to impossible to go to bed on time, that’s something I’m definitely working on...). Back to Sundays though, this past Sunday was different because it was some special conference and that was when I sang the hymn "Beautiful Savior" and I had prepared like the descant as a solo in English on the last verse. When I get there, the sister conducting came up to me and was like "ok you’re going to sing the first verse by yourself in Portuguese... go!" and I was like... “Let’s do this thing!”  Sister Swenson who was playing the piano was like "oh I’m sorry I don’t think I told you you were doing that"... nope but it was all good and turned out well.

Ok so besides the lessons we teach we do this thing called TRC which is pretty much just another lesson but its longer, about 45 minutes and its only once a week instead of every day and they video us then make us watch ourselves so we can do sort of self evaluation type stuff. That was pretty interesting and my companion Elder S. (whose parents emailed him last week about the Cobia connection -cool) was like banging his head on the table because he was so embarrassed, it’s all good though and he did just fine and he is progressing a lot. On occasion we actually sing for our investigators so we sang “Families Can be Together Forever” for this TRC (I bought a Portuguese primary song book at the distribution center last week yay!).  It actually was pretty good on the recording haha.

Ok to answer how long it takes letters to reach me: I don’t exactly know, but I got what I would assume was Dad’s first letter that first p day so a week ago (btw our p day is Friday which was a super long wait that first week but I’m glad you didn’t call the office haha).  Just as I am writing this email I got handed Mom’s letter, so however long that is.

This past Thursday I woke up and my voice was gone and I was sick... sadness.  It’s been like all over the CTM though because it hasn’t been raining as much and the pollution is like messing with a bunch of people, but Advil is magical and I’m feeling much better today. So also last p day my district walked around Sao Paulo and hit all the cool stuff the other missionaries told us to do. There’s this little shop with these awesome ties that have like borders on them, I’ll have to send you a picture, but they are the thing to have here so I’m totally going to get one this week.  Also, after the temple today, which was great, we went down to the distribution center and I got a leather triple of Portuguese scriptures for 35 reis which is like $17 which was pretty sweet.  

I love you all so much! The language is coming but more important I am learning how to listen to the whispers of the spirit and discern the needs of our investigators. The language is a tool, a very important tool and essential to have, but it’s that speaking to people’s hearts that I hope to achieve here in the CTM and out in the field. Good luck, keep being awesome, I love getting your emails and let me tell you the hardest part about being here is not being able to just call you guys up or ask mom what song to sing haha.

Love Elder Pierce

Also I’m still trying to figure out how to attach pictures, hopefully that will be soon! Oh and also, if I don’t answer your questions it’s because I’ve forgotten and I am very sorry so please include them in the next week’s email because I don’t have the time to go back and check, Love ya! Till next week