I made it to Brazil! It is sunny, 75 and perfect here. I love it already. My p-day is on Wednesdays. So that should be when you'll hear from me next. I am in tio of sisters here. I met both of my companions in Atlanta and we flew out together. Their names are Sister O'Reilly from Connecticut and Sister Su'a from Missouri. They are both great. We are the only three sisters in our district. On my first plane from Rochester I sat next to this super cute little old lady on her way to see her first grandchild. It was so fun to talk with her and get to know her. After chatting for about an hour I found out she was from Victor! Haha, what are the chances? I gave her my mission blog info so maybe she will follow it :) In between flights I wandered the airport for a bit and then found an Elder on his way to Columbia. We both accidentally introduced ourselves using first names before we realized we are missionaries now. Haha, after that I had the Sister Maxwell thing down. We got some food (Panda Express!) and then found a Sister headed to Peru. That Sister and I then found about 20 other missionaries headed to Peru. But non going to Brazil! They all left for their flight and then just about 5 minutes later I ran into two Elders that just arrived from Salt Lake headed for Brazil. We gathered more and more missionaries until our flight departed around 8. No one else heading to Brazil arrived nearly as early as I did. I guess Rochester is so small that was the only flight they could get me on. It wasn't a bad wait though. On my nine and a half hour flight from Atlanta I sat next to a Brazilian man. He spoke 7 languages and had visited 49 countries! Crazy! He taught me a bit of Portuguese and told me about things to see and do in Brazil.
I can't wait to get out and actually start serving! Haha, it is probably bad if I am ready to get out and I have only been in the CTM (Missionary Training Center) one day. The CTM is great though. When we got in this morning they fed us breakfast (there was this thick, creamy warm milk stuff that was really good. I don't remember what it was called... it almost tasted like milk after you eat cereal, but thicker and better. And the juice!! Holy moly the juice was amazing. SO GOOD!) and then gave us an hour and a half to unpack, shower, nap, etc. I just unpacked... I am a bit more organized than my companions ;) Oh, as I was unpacking my knee got cut open some how. I don't know what happened. All the sudden I just noticed blood all over the floor. It wasn't bad though. And thankfully the floor is all tile so it was super easy to clean up. My room is on the fourth floor and looks out over São Paulo. It is a beautiful view. Our windows don't have screens so we can open it right up to outside. That's pretty cool. As long as no bugs come in! My room has space for six sisters in it, but there are only three of us right now. We may get more sisters in in the weeks to come, but for now it is pretty spacious. My favorite moment so far was walking into the CTM and having the Sister Swenson (the CTM president's wife) pin on my name tag. I keep looking down to check and make sure it is still there. It is the best feeling ever to have that name tag on with my name right next to Christ's. It is an honor and a moment I have been looking forward to my entire life.
I have a bunch of pictures to send already, but I don't have time to today. We have meetings with the president and then head straight into classes after this. I have a feeling that after this, no one is going to be nice and speak to us in English anymore! Let the immersion begin! I am super exited to learn the language and be able to communicate with the people. Oh, random fact, they have purple trees here! Bright purple! The trees are all in bloom and some of them have bright, lavender purple blossoms. They only have a few leaves so the trees actually look purple. It is really cool. I will have to get some pictures and send them to you at some point.
Alright, I have to go! I love you all!
-Sister Maxwell
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