Kim's brother, Trevor, just left the CTM two weeks before Kim got there, so a lot of people there know him and she talks about him in her letter below. He is now a full-fledged missionary in the Brazil Salvador South Mission! http://www.eldertrevorjohnson.tumblr.com/ They would have loved to have been there at the same time, but it was great for Kim to have Trevor go first and help her prepare for it.
Here are some excerpts from Kim's letters so far:
Ola Familia!
Oi! Como esta fazendo?
Tudo Bem! Starting out at the Sao Paulo CTM has been great! I slept on the plane flight since we flew all night long and I haven't been tired at all. We did have a layover in Dallas where I had my last American meal at McDonalds. Well worth it. 2 snack wraps and a Rollo McFlurry. Yum. :)
I really like the people here and we have a really fun district. My companion is awesome! She is from Orem and she is seriously the nicest person. We wake up at 6:30 and study Portuguese and the Preach my Gospel manual. All of our teachers are Brazilian. I met one of Trevor's teachers! She loved him! She said he learned the language extraordinarily fast. She said all the Brazilians loved him and they all went to his room to hang out. She said he would be an amazing missionary because he is so outgoing and picked up Portuguese so fast. A lot to live up to! :)
We've played 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' in Portuguese. I run on the track and play volleyball everyday. We get to go to the Sao Paulo temple every week which is beautiful! Some things that are different from North America...I'm used to the first floor of a building meaning the ground floor. Here you have the ground floor, and then the first floor is above it. So when you're on the top floor of a three-story building, you're on the second floor, ha ha. The showers have four knobs in them. I usually just use the bottom two, but I'm starting to figure it out. They have paninis for breakfast every morning that are delicious! Lunch (almoco) is the biggest meal of the day. The watermelon and mango are really good! I caught a gecko yesterday! It was about the length of my pinkie. :)
I got to teach Taylor Richards a practice lesson! Apparently he taught Trevor when Taylor was new. Our teacher warned us that if you don't teach your "practice investigator" to pray, they'll do some crazy stuff while you're closing your eyes. After we taught, Taylor said he was disappointed because he was looking forward to waving his arms around, standing up and down, kneeling bent over on the ground, etc. because that's what Trevor did when Taylor was teaching. :)
Taylor passed on to me all the flashcards that Trevor made and had given to him. There are a billion! They are super nice and helpful. I'm proud to say Trevor is my brother around here. He evidently worked super hard and was really fun with everyone. (Of course!)
There's two ways to say "I'm sorry" in Portuguese. There's Desculpa = "It was me" and Senti Muito= "I feel for you." So during a practice role play, our teacher was pretending to be very sad and she said her husband left her for someone else. An Elder responded, "Desculpa" and our teacher responded, "It was You!" It was really funny. I love our teachers, and our classes are so much fun! Our district honestly has a blast.
It was Brazilian Independence Day here last week! The cafeteria was decorated in green and yellow and they had really good meat. You have got to listen to the Brazilian National Anthem, it is awesome and everyone here gets super into it!
I miss you all and I love getting letters! Write me!
Eu ti amo!
Love, Kim
