Final Week in the CTM

        This week was another great one. It is my final week here at the CTM! That is crazy. It feels like I have been here forever, but then not at all at the same time. It is fun being the oldest group though! It makes me feel good about my Portuguese ;) It is really cool to be able to give the newer missionaries advice too. I know I always loved to talk with the older groups! The construction on the usual girls' floor here is finished now so they aren't putting any new sisters on my floor. That makes my Sister Treinadora role much easier. It doesn't take nearly as long to get ten sisters in their rooms with the lights off and quiet! So that means a little bit more sleep for me :) 

          So there is one other American district that came in at the same time as us. We are all really good friends. So last p-day we bought them a bunch of candy and left it with a note in their classroom. Then on Friday, their p-day, they surprised us with a cake, pastry thing! It was basically the best night ever. So we have this whole nice-prank thing going between our two districts. One of the Elders in my district bought Sister Su'a this bag of little plastic babies as a joke for her birthday. So we then took all of these little (slightly creepy) babies and hid them all throughout their room. Their class is directly across the courtyard from us so we can watch each other through the windows. We were waiting in anticipation for them to find the babies all day! It was so funny when they finally did! I am really going to miss all of these friends that I have made here at the CTM. Especially my district and our companion district! We have had so much fun together.

             I also had one of my life-long dreams come true this week.... I started an a capella group!! Every night we eat dinner really fast now and then use the rest of our meal time to go to a classroom and sing. It is so much fun! We are pretty good too. It is just me (soprano) Sis Su'a (alto) and then two guys from another district. It is so fun to sing with them all. They are really good too. We just take hymns and sing them a capella and then sometimes mix them up and add descants and new harmonies... I love it! Sis Swenson walked by the other say when we were singing and stopped in. We all thought we were going to get in trouble! But instead she said we were really good and asked if we would sing in an upcoming devotional. Unfortunately, we will be gone by then. But she is really musically talented so that was a huge compliment coming from her!

            This past Sunday as we were trying to decide on goals for the week as a district, I asked everyone what kind of missionary they wanted to be. As we talked about our ideal and the kind of people we wanted to become, the spirit was so strong. It was amazing to see everyone's testimony through their desire to serve the Lord. We came up with the best goals yet through that. With what we wanted to become in mind, we were really able to focus in on what we needed to do to get there. That made the hard goals seem worth it too. I think this final week is going to amazing. We definitely are cracking down. Not that we weren't working hard before, but now our focus and determination is even stronger. I know that I have a lot more to learn before I am ready! Yet at the same time, I am anxious to get out there. I feel like I have reached the point where I know enough to realize how little I actually know. Which I guess is good. I think that I am ready to leave the CTM. Not because I know the language perfectly or all of the doctrine inside and out, but because I know enough to be able to serve the Lord. I don't think there is much more I could learn just from actors or sitting in classrooms all day. It is time to brave the real world and start into the work the Lord has prepared for me! 

            I will be leaving the CTM some time on Tuesday. I know I won't get to write again from here, but writing from the field next week just depends on my president. SO I may not get to write home next week- so don't worry if you don't hear from me! 

I love you all! 

Sister Emma Maxwell

Loving the Work... and the butterflies!

      So before I forget, I have to answer some of your questions from last week. I would love to get that green book. We only have the big ones here. Also, could you possibly send my flag? I forgot it at home! I think that is all that I forgot though. Or at least that I have realized so far. I haven't had to talk in church yet.. but I am sure that will come soon. We do have a "choir". But all of the missionaries are in it. We sing for every devotional for the president and his wife and whoever is speaking.

           So during our physical activity time we can play volleyball. There are only a few courts so you don't get to actually play much though- so usually I just run on the track and work out. But one day this week I was playing with my companions. All of the sudden something flew past my face. I turned to see a huge, gorgeous butterfly! I don't think I have ever seen a butterfly that big or colorful in real life. It was amazing! As I watched this butterfly drift gracefully through the air and pondered the magnificence of God's creations, however, the volleyball game continued on around me. I was brought back to reality by a volleyball spiked directly at my face. Haha, luckily I turned at just the right moment so it just grazed off my shoulder rather than hit me full force in the face. I confessed to my companions afterwards that I had been distracted by a butterfly... I don't think they´ll ever let me live that one down! 

             I also had proselyting this week! It was absolutely amazing! Before hand, I wasn't nervous at all. My companions were working up a panic over the whole thing. They were worrying over every little thing that could possibly go wrong, and I was nearly doing a happy dance out of excitement! So we left the CTM around 13:30 and headed for a public bus station. We had three copies of the Book of Mormon each- so nine total for my companionship! When we reached the bus stop a few blocks away, our instructor told us we could start handing them out (we aren't supposed to around the CTM). That is when the nervousness hit me. It all of the sudden became very real that I was in a foreign country, about to share the most precious thing in the world with a complete stranger in a language that I barely knew! It was terrifying. But I plucked up my courage and went to talk to a guy with a broken arm. I figured that if he was slightly crippled he would have more trouble beating me up if he didn't like my message (haha, just kidding- he was just the closest person to us) Anyways I started talking to him about how he had broken his arm and got to know him a bit. Then we got on the bus and kept talking. I found out that he was going into International Relations and spoke English along with about five other languages. That was such a temptation! Knowing he spoke English and trying to struggle through in Portuguese! But I stayed strong and didn't use a lick of English! Naturally, the conversation drifted to why I am here in Brazil. I was able to share my testimony with him and give him a Book of Mormon! My first Book of Mormon placed as an official missionary! Woo! By the time we had arrived at our stop we had given out 2 copies already! Then within 45 minutes at the square/park we had given out all 9 and helped the Elders place a few too (apparently everyone wants to talk to three beautiful, very humble ;) American girls!) It was such an amazing experience. The people here are so open to the gospel. They would sit down and start reading the Book of Mormon immediately. Not a single person turned us down! And many even gave us their phone numbers so they could meet with the missionaries! The people here are so ready for the gospel. The Elders even had someone come up and say that they had heard about our church and wanted to buy one of the books- what a miracle! That would never happen in the US. I am so grateful to be here among such a loving, open people. Their faith in Christ is so strong! 

              The dryers here at the CTM are very finicky. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. We have a set time to use it though, so if it doesn't work then you are out of luck! This week they didn't work at all! So we had to hang up all of our clothes all over in our room. I sent you a picture of that (hopefully it came through). It was pretty great. Haha, we seriously pulled out our suitcases and were draping clothes over everything! It was a bit chaotic, but worked well.

   

I love you all! Have a wonderful week full of lots of good adventures! 

Love,

Sister Maxwell



Minha!

              Minha! Haha, I am glad that I got you all with that story last week! I wish I could have seen your faces as you read it. Hopefully I got a few laughs out of you all and I didn´t lose too much trust in the process! I love you guys!
              So this has been another great, but crazy week. My district went on an English fast on Monday. We are taking today, p-day, off. So basically what that means is that none of us are speaking any English! It is super hard sometimes, and exhausting, but I think it is definitely helping! We know more Portuguese than I think we knew we did. It also makes it clear how much more we really need to learn. It was kind of weird to use English again after all of that... That´s a good sign, right? So the only times that I have spoken in English the past two days was to explain a couple of grammatical concepts to some Elders in my district- I didn´t have the vocab to do that in Portuguese! But other than that it has been 100% Portuguese! Crazy! So I was also made Sister Training Leader on Sunday... I did not see that one coming! I had only been here for two and a half weeks! There are so many sisters that are more experienced and qualified than I am for that position. So I am a little nervous about taking it on. I´m just counting on the fact that the Lord will qualify those He calls. I think it will be a really cool responsibility. I get to know all of the sisters much better than I would otherwise and I get to greet all of the new sisters each week too! I get to help with their orientation and be their go to with any questions (though I don´t know that I have all the answers for them!). My companions are a little bummed about it though because now hey have to come to all of my meetings with me! And that means they can´t take naps on Sundays. Haha, they still love me though- so it´s all good. I am also responsible for making sure everyone is out of the bathrooms and in their rooms with the lights off every night. That part is a bit of a pain. It means that I don´t get to go to bed until after everyone else. And sometimes girls are slow! But it hasn´t been too much of a problem yet- so don´t worry :)
               My favorite experience from this week was a lesson with one of our investigators, Elaine. She is divorced and is fighting for custody of her son with her ex-husband. We decided to teach her a lesson about faith in Christ. One of the pamphlets has a picture of Christ raising a girl from the dead. We used that picture in our lesson and focused especially on the girl´s parents. It was through their faith that their daughter was raised from the dead. I testified to her that if she had faith like that girl´s parents, she too could see miracles in her life. The spirit was so strong! As I testified, she started to cry and then I of course cried... the Maxwell curse/blessing. It was amazing. I think the best part was that our "investigator" was really just our teacher acting. We were all just pretending, but in that moment it felt so real. Our love for her was so strong and her hope in our message was just overwhelming. I love being a missionary!
                This Saturday I get to go out into São Paulo to go proselyting! How crazy is that?! In just a couple days I will be out in the streets of Brazil sharing the gospel in Portuguese with real people! Haha, I am so excited for it! But to make up for my last letter, I´ll be completely honest with you- I am also really nervous. I don´t feel ready for it quite yet, but I know it will be fine. With the Lord on my side, what could go wrong?
                 And now for the funny story of the week! We got two new Elders from Provo in our district today. Because Provo doesn´t have the immersion that we do, they are a bit behind in the language. They are both great though and fit right in. Anyways, so last night we were practicing teaching with our teacher in class. Elder Child (one of the newbies) was supposed to be a member present in the lesson. He kind of zoned out in the lesson though. I am pretty sure he was on the verge of sleep. So then our teacher, who is pretending to be an investigator turns and asks him to share an experience. He nearly jumps out of his seat when she calls his name. It was pretty funny. Then of course he didn´t know what she had asked, so he had her repeat it. Some how he misunderstood her though. He thought he heard "cantar" which means to sing. I wish you could have seen the panicked look on his face! Haha, I think we should have let him think that was correct and had him sing a bit for us :)
                   Alright, I am just about out of time for this week! I love you guys! Have a wonderful week!
-Sister Maxwell

Beautiful Day, Beautiful Sister Missionaries

Locked Doors and Companion fun

Minha!
       P-days are the best day ever  :) They really are fantastic though- temple, family and freedom from  the CTM! Woohoo! It was really cool to go out into the city last week  and get to interact with people in a more normal environment. I need  to learn a whole lot more Portuguese, but it was awesome. Oh, there is  this little shop here that makes these leather scripture covers that  you can get personalized with your name and mission. And then they  burn any picture you want into it too. So cool! And pretty cheap too!  So I ordered a set for my scriptures. I need a case anyways, so why  not get a sweet Brazilian one, right?
         I have a couple stories for you guys this week! The first one happened just yesterday. So here to learn the language we get to spend about an hour each day using computers and the TALL program. It is really helpful. Well, yesterday we went up to one of the labs (a room with about ten computers) and  set to work. When we finished up, we went to leave, and the door  wouldn't open... At first I thought the Elders were just messing  with us, but I gave the handle a try and sure enough, we were locked in. The little lock knob thing was broken off on the inside and we were stuck! So then we had to wait for someone to pass by the room and try to yell through the door and explain in Portuguese that we were stuck. Haha, it was quite the process. They don't teach you the words you need for that sort of situation in Preach My Gospel. Eventually we got the point across and the other missionaries went for help. After about an hour of being stuck in the room it became apparent that we were not getting out through that door. So we took the ties of each of the Elders in my district and tied them together to form a rope. We then put it out the window (thank goodness there are no screens here!) and climbed down to the ground floor. It was awesome! Probably the coolest CTM experience ever.
         My second story is about one of our lessons. My companions and I teach first, and then the two sets of Elders in my district go and teach the same person. Well, when we came out of our lesson the Elders were in the hall waiting for their turn  to teach. This time, our investigator was one of our instructors. He had just changed in the bathroom in the hall into his investigator  "costume". Our Elders found his stuff in the bathroom and so they  decided to put it on. Haha! So then Irmão Alonso opens the door for the lesson and sees the Elders wearing his tie and his sweater and his glasses! Haha! It was the funniest thing ever! We stayed to see his reaction of course. He greeted them as usually at first but then when he noticed his face just went dead. He was so close to breaking character! Haha. They made it through their whole lesson as normal though. It wasn't until they got back to class and Irmão Alonso came in that he finally broke and we all laughed about it.
          Okay, so I hope you really enjoyed that first story, but it wasn't totally true. I  hope I had you going a bit with it! Haha, the Elders we stopped in the hall actually just went and got one off the janitors and he came and unlocked the door for us. The tie rope would have been cooler though. We did decide who we'd kill off first if it came to that though ;) I would have lived- they all need me for help in class with Portuguese!
          On a more serious note, everything here is going really well. I didn't realize how much I had learned until a new batch of American missionaries came in. That was when I realized how much Portuguese that I actually knew. It is amazing how the Lord has helped me to learn this language and progress! I still have tons to learn, but I am to the point where I don't need notes in my lessons anymore!! Woohoo! It is the best feeling ever to be freed from that. We are getting better and better at teaching each day. We currently have two investigators we teach each day and then we also practice teaching a member too- like those after dinner spiritual thoughts. Those are really nice because you can just have a good discussion about the gospel! Our actually lessons have gone really well too though. Our first investigator committed to baptism. One of the ones we are teaching now has a baptismal date and the other one is on the way. I still can't believe how much I love them even though they are just instructors acting. It is cool.
          This past Saturday was a really hard day. That was the day we started teaching two new investigators, and our language time with an instructor doubled! It was a very stressful, mentally demanding day. Plus, we didn't get to really celebrate Halloween. We wore orange and black, but that was it. Then Sunday was fast Sunday. But no one here remembered to tell us, the newbies, that in the CTM the fast starts after lunch! So we showed up for dinner only to find out that we weren't going to be fed. That was just one more thing on top of a very hard day! That evening though, everything turned around. We had an amazing discussion about the  scriptures together as a district. It was just what I needed! I wish I had time to write more, but I am going to have to go! I love you guys! Have a great week!
-Sister Maxwell