Fries and Cheetos

Big news everybody! So you know how Spanish speaking sister missionaries go by "hermana" in Brazil, instead of going by "irma" we go by "sister", BUT  as of this week we will now be called Irmas!!!! I'm gonna get new nametags that say Irma Dobbs and I'll have my old ones that say "Sister Dobbs"!! How cool is that?

So, to explain the title, "Faz sentido" is a phrase we use all the time to check our understanding because it means "makes sense." But, it's pronounced like "fries and cheetos" so that's the joke in our district.

Last week for p-day we went to the Campinas temple and it was gorgeous! It's a bit farther than the Sao Paolo temple, about an hour and a half bus ride away. I took a phat nap on that  bus and it was glorious. The temple is so pretty. Unlike the Sao Paolo temple which is in the heart of the city, the Campinas temple is more in the countryside. It has got some super pretty stained glass. I love going to the temple so so much. I'm so grateful we get to go weekly in the CTM. It's so special and I feel so close to my Heavenly Father when I'm in His house.

Caroline Pack arrived this week!!! It's been so fun to see her around!

One funny, very Mauri thing that I did was I forgot to put on my nametag and didn't realize until lunch! I had gone like six hours before realizing and someone else had to point it out to me. Oopsies.

Tomorrow night the six girls in my district are going to sing "Come thou fount of every blessing" at the devotional. I'm so excited! It's such a pretty song and it makes me so happy. I always think of how good my God is and how grateful I am for all He has given me.

I'm loving it here so much. I realized the other day how happy I've been and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to share what makes me so happy. I've never felt closer to my Savior Jesus Christ than  I feel here. I am so grateful for all He has helped me with and how He continues to help me in every moment of every day.

I had the opportunity to go proselyting on Saturday!! We went to a really famous, really big, really busy street called Avenida Polista and just talked to people! I was able to understand more than I thought I could, but there was still a lot that went over my head. But they understood me and we carried out a conversation so it was fun.

I'm getting better at Portuguese every day. My favorite thing to do is practice my Portuguese during meals by talking to brasilieros. They always help me a ton and they're so kind and so friendly. My roommates help me a ton too. Speaking of, we got new roommates this week because our old roommates went to the field and one of them is from Porto Alegre!!

I'll be in the field in 2 weeks and I get more and more excited each day.

My scriptures of the week are Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Because, truly, in Christ we can find rest and He can ease our burdens and Alma 26: 16, 35

16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.
35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

Because that is how I feel. "We will rejoice, for our joy is full...who can glory too much in the Lord" That's why I'm out here: because I love the Lord.


Have a good week everybody!

love you all!
Sister Dobbs

I don't even speak Porkachoo

Sometimes my district gets very frustrated with Portuguese and my companion started calling it porkagese which evolved into porkachoo. She's hilarious.

Gosh I love my companion. She's super sweet, optimistic, hilarious and hardworking. She sings everywhere she goes so she kind of reminds me of a disney princess. I love it because I love her voice. She also will skip down the halls sometimes. She's adorable. She's also very accident prone and most of my funny stories are about her.

I've gone to the Sao Paolo temple the last two weeks and it's gorgeous!! It has some gorgeous stained glass which makes me so happy. It's also got these palm trees around it and there are parrots in them I think. They're so fun. It's smack dab in the middle of the city. It's so pretty. I have lots of pictures but we can't send them in the CTM so in 3 weeks you'll get them.

On p-days we can walk around the city. We went to this cute cookie store called Mr. Cheneys. We got to this cute snack store, we've tried acai and pastels. My fave was this pastel with bananas and canela (cinnamon). We also go to the post office to send letters and there's all these vendors outside the CTM selling ties, scripture cases and stuff. They're super cute and almost everyone in my district got one. I'm waiting for the field to buy something like that. But I do get to be the translator for my district whenever someone buys something because I'm sort of decent at communicating. Kinda fun. Our temple trip takes up most of p-day but I am not complaining. I love the bus ride, the session, and the visitors center after. My district plays this game called hot seat where someone is in the hot seat and we fire questions at them and it's so fun. We're so close and I love them with my whole heart. I got so lucky,

We had cereal for breakfast a couple times and it was glorious. frosted flakes, chocolate frosted flakes and granola. I was so happy.

I found in my scriptures all the verses to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and my district has been singing it. It's sooo pretty because Sister Groll and Sister Christensen are way good at harmonizing. I love it. And Elder Hansen has mad piano skills so sometimes we'll study in a room with a piano and it's so fun.

ok now spiritual>

There are cool moments where I am able to converse and I just feel so good about it! I've been here for 3 weeks and it's so awesome that I'm able to do that. I know that I would not be able to learn Portuguese this quickly if not for my amazing teachers and the Lord's help. It's so cool when I understand it or when I think in Portuguese. I'm learning more words every day and immersion really works. It's so so cool. I love talking with the brasilieros! They're nice and understanding when I speak slow.

Matthew 16:25 is the scripture for the week. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." If you're ever feeling down or not that happy, you need to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others. This scripture has been my lifeline in the mission because I am learning more and more to stop worrying, not complain, and focus on the lord and serving His children. I really am happy and I get so excited because I know how much my faith in Jesus Christ has changed my life and I'm excited to share that with others.

funny-

Our favorite word is fofo. It means cute. I'll call people fofas (cuties) and it's just so fun to say.

We were playing volleyball one time and my companion was serving and she NAILED a girl in the head from behind. The poor girl had her hair tied up with a pencil and THE PENCIL BROKE WHEN THE BALL HIT HER!! Oh my gosh it was so funny. And my poor companion didn't know how to apologize other than say desculpa over and over.

My companion also thought that bishopric meant bishop rick and she thought her bishop's first name was Rick for like 3 years.

I learned a tongue twister in Portuguese and it was hard. Then I taught my roommates some tongue twisters and they had such a hard time with it. It was hilarious. We also spent an eternity trying to learn the difference in pronunciation between sao (with a tilde thing over the a ), sol, sal, and sou. So hard. But were doing better with pronunciation.

I love the mission!! I feel so close to my Savior here. I'm so excited for the field and I love you all!!

besitos!!!! amo voces!!!

Sister Dobbs

Week 2 in the CTM

So my first two weeks as a missionary have been wild!!!! I understand now that it's the best and worst of times, but I am adjusting really well. I've gotten used to the routine. The classes don't feel as long and I understand Portuguese when my teachers and my roommates speak it. The days are mostly the same here. We have classes about language and grammar, classes about doctrine, and classes about how to teach that doctrine in the language. It's a good time. And of course scripture study which I love!! I learn so much from my district and teachers, they have amazing insights.

The food is kind of fun. They weren't kidding about rice and beans. Just about every lunch and every dinner is rice and beans. No joke, and lots of meat. Brazilian BBQ every day baby!!!!! JK. It's like cafeteria food. Sometimes it's gross, sometimes it's good. Everyone says the food is way better in the field, but I'm not complaining. It's three meals a day plus vending machine snacks-- we get 7.50 reals a day and it's lit, which is more than I could say in college and more than I will say in the field. And I'm getting used to it. I actually like it. On Tuesdays we have pizza but it's just bread and cheese with fun toppings like tomatoes and tuna. Not american pizza but definitely fun.

I had pancakes yesterday and it was glorious. I was so happy. They were way sweet. Today we had feijoada, and it was good. It's a dish of meat and beans. I also love the meat here and the fruits. The watermelon and pineapple are to die for. Also fruits have different colors, the pineapple is a very pale white and the oranges are green. They also have other fruits like guarana that aren't in the US. and There's always some vegetable for dinner but I have no idea what they are. They're kinda weird. They don't look like anything familiar, but it keeps us on our toes.

For everyone who was wondering about my plunger situation- it all worked out. That night they unclogged the toilet so we were super grateful. super super grateful. And they do have plungers here, just not in the CTM. But I had a good time trying to explain our predicament!

okay tchau tchau, te amo voceis

Sister Dobbs

First week in the CTM!

Oye todo mundo!!!! como estao?
So I'm out here living my best life in Sao Paolo. It's wild. It hasn't really hit me that I'm in another country because I haven't been outside much except for actividade fisica (our daily exercise). The city of Sao Paolo is HUGE. When we were descending on the plane, it just goes on for miles and miles. It's so so big. My window has a cool view of some skyscrapers and tomorrow were going to the temple and we get to explore the city and I'm so excited for that. We're gonna go with some brasilieros so we don't get lost but it'll be way fun.

So I can email on Tuesdays and my pday is Wednesday. The days of the week are funny here. Monday through Friday are segunda-feira, terca-feira and so on. Then saturday and sunday are sabado and domingo. It was confusing at first but I'm getting a hang of it.
Ok so my flight was kinda lit. We got dinner and blankets and breakfast. I talked to the guy next to me for a bit and there were 7 other missionaries on my flight. The plane was huge and the flight didn't feel like 9 hours. It went by sort of quickly.

Brasilieros are so so nice and like to help us speak Portuguese. They are so nice, even though I know I'm so bad at it. But I'm able to get my message across at least 90 percent of the time and that's good. The CTM (centro de trenamento de missionaries) has like 200 people there. The majority are Brazilians, either going to other parts of Brazil or going to other places in South America. Then, there are people who speak Spanish and are learning Portuguese. Then there are the 30 or so of us Americans learning Portuguese. We stick out sooo much. Also there's a district of people, about 15, who are going to Japan so they're learning Japanese from Portuguese. Props to them because I'm sure that's a hard language. It makes me glad I'm learning Portuguese. They're in the ctm for like 9 weeks, I only have 6.

My companion is Sister Maxwell and I love her. She's great and fun and a hard worker. And shes straight up which I love. My district is so so fun. I love all 7 of them so so much. We have gotten so close, probably because we spend like 16 hours a day together. We share scriptures we like during personal study and that's fun. They're all great and I learn a ton from them.

So I'm getting better at Portuguese. I go to lots of classes and learn lots. All my teachers are brasilieros and they speak some English but teach almost completely in Portuguese. kind of a trial by fire, but it's good. I'm realizing that I know more than I think I know. Spanish helps a ton. I can understand a decent amount. Yesterday my proudest moment was being mistaken for a brasiliera and I was so proud. I don't know if it was how I looked or how I spoke but they were definitely surprised I was american. And others tell me I'm speaking well for only having been here a week. Muito bem. Immersion totally works. You progress in the language way faster when it's all you're supposed to talk in. We have a goal thing called fala sua lingua and were supposed to speak minimal english, or try to say it in Portuguese before we say what we wanna say in English. It helps you realize you know more than you think. I like it.

So funny story time, you don't flush toilet paper here. I keep forgetting and then I stress about clogging the toilet so much. And then today it actually happened. Our toilet was clogged and it was all my fault!!!!!! I felt so so bad. But I thought, I'll just find a plunger and take care of it myself. there are no plungers in the cleaning closet. So I try to explain to my roommate who speaks Portuguese what I mean and she's confused. She doesn't know what I'm talking about and she usually gets me. So then I ask a cleaning lady, a teacher, someone at the help desk and NO BODY UNDERSTANDS WHAT A PLUNGER IS. I even drew one out and like had the teacher google it. So I'm pretty sure they don't have plungers here in Brazil. The help desk said they'd take care of it but it's night time now and it is still not taken care of. I want to die. This is the worst. I will update you next week on my predicament but it's so so funny. I just laugh.

They use military time here which I'm still getting used to.

Here's my spiritual part:
When I'm worried about stuff, I was reminded of Doctrine & Covenants 18:15-16, which talks about the great joy I will feel: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!  And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"
And when I'm scared about the mission, I remember the great commission in Matthew 28:19 when the savior promises that he will always be with us: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Every day this week I've had cool experiences where I remember why I came. It makes me excited to share what I believe. It's like I have this great gift and i wanna share it with todo mundo.

Okay tchau tchau, te amo voceis

Sister Dobbs