O CAMPO

Oi gente! This is Sister Jeppson reporting from o campo! 

A lot has happened during the last week or so! I will start with the end of my CTM experience...

The last week was a blur of last training and lessons and such. One of my instructors surprised us with the fact that he did indeed speak pretty fluent English, but just pretended not to the whole time haha. He did a great job of it, and despite us all being a little mad, he helped us in the long run.

The last day was a great one, but bitter sweet. We had a great devotional with the President of the CTM, and said goodbyes/packed/cleaned and such. 

Last Tuesday morning, we left early for the field! Turns out my mission home is not very far from the CTM, within 40 min. we arrivied and were welcomed by President and Sister Miller and the office missionaries. Pres. and Sister Miller are so great and sweet! They are from Canada and have only been here for 3 weeks, so they are learning with us. The rest of the day consisted of intro stuff, eating a yummy lunch, meeting our companions, contacting, and traveling to our areas. 

My companion and trainer is Sister Bernabeu from Paraguay. She is so sweet, and has been out for a year. She knows a little English too, which has been such a blessing. 

Right away before traveling to our areas, we went contacting by the mission office to give out 2 Book of Mormons. It was really cool to do so, even though i really couldn't do any of the talking whatsoever haha. 

We traveled about 2 hours to our area, Ermelino Matarazzo. It is a pretty big area, so lots and lots and lots of walking!!! 

We had a zone meeting the next morning, so i got to meet a bunch of other missionaries, which was fun. 

Language:

Portuguese is hard! It is hard to understand people and I have to tell them to slow down a lot because everything just blends together. It really takes a lot of brain power to understand and pick out words that I know. It will defnitely take time and patience, but being immersed in it all day every day helps. The cool thing is I have still had opportunities to teach a little bit, and the gift of tongues is real. 

People: 

The people here are awesome! So kind and love to give hugs. I met the ward at the ward party this week. Its called Festa Julina and is basically a harvest festival party here. It was so awesome to see everyone and how they celebrate. Plus we got around 15 new people interested in learning more about the gospel. It was gret!

Random:

Food:

Lots of beans and rice! (surprise hehe). But actually the food here has been great! Basically all you need to eat every day is lunch haha, the people expect you to have at least seconds of everything. I had a really good meal Sunday called a churrasco, which is basically a bbq. so good. Also they have a dessert called bringadeiro here which is basically chocolate, butter, and sweet condensed milk, that is way good. Kind of like fudge.

Today for pday amongst other things, we hit up McDonalds.  This is probably a surprise to a lot of people, but especially mom haha.  Never thought I would, but its actually good here! Like good quality and not gross at all!  So thats fun hahaha.  

I have learned so much already! Not only how to walk a lot, but to have so much patience with myself, and so much love for the people! 

Quote of the week:

Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people...Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ---Prez. Gordon B. Hinckley

Love you all!!!

Love, Sister Jeppson

Sister Shepherd and Sister Jeppson

Sister Jeppson, Elder Morrison, Sister Shepherd

Sister Godfrey, Sister Shepherd, Me, Sister Howe, Sister Duffield, Sister Tanner 

Açaí 

We had cookies sent to Emma from a place next to the CTM called Mr. Cheneys

CTM District

Chicken Hearts

Sister Jeppson and Sister Tanner

Closest thing to peanut butter

Elder Coronel and New Mission Companion and Trainer, Sister Bernabeu from Paraguay

Sister Andrade (Cape Verde), Sister Bernabeu and  Sister Jeppson

Our apartment

One week until O Campo!!

Wow okay I can´t believe I am on the last week here in the CTM. So crazy!!

So this week was a good one! Not a ton of new things to say, but I have been busy trying to learn as much as i can before I go and won´t speak English for a while haha. 

Portuguese is going well! Our instructors gave us a really nice compliment and said we are doing very well and have made a lot of progress recently, so that is great to hear. And I have been learning so much in general on how to become a successful missionary. The CTM is an amazing place, so full of the Spirit, and has the best people around!

Food:

Last pday our instructor took us to get chicken heart and it was so yummy!! Also the acai here is unreal. It makes me excited for what else I will try in the next 17 months. 

Also it is a tradition here to have some sort of pasta on Sundays. Fun stuff

ok and Sorry that my emails have been pretty short, but with the influx of new missionaries here, we don't have a lot of time. But the next time you hear from me I will have a lot of new things to talk about!!

Quote of the Week:

Just enjoy the journey and focus on progress, not perfection. (thanks dad:)

Also read Jeffrey R. Hollands talk ´Be ye therefore perfect, eventually´ its one of my favorites.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/be-ye-therefore-perfect-eventually?lang=eng

Love you all so much!!

Love, Sister Jeppson

More details from questions answered: 

I leave the CTM next Tuesday morning! We don't know the details until Sunday night. Also, i get a proseyliting card that tells me when i come home, thought you might be exited about that haha. 

I don't know the area at all yet haha. 

Yes we have a whole district from Brazil going there!! I think its like 6 guys and 2 girls. so thats really exciting. They are all awesome.

The cookies were so great!! i loved them, so thank you again!!!

I sewed up a dress and a button on my shirt and thought you would be proud haha. 

This morning we got to the temple and it was so good!! It was an awesome experience to do it in Portuguese, because the spirit was so strong even though i couldn't catch a lot of what they were saying. Neat.

Language: I get frustrated sometimes because it doesn't come super easy, but also depends on the day haha. I know it will come, its just the time that is takes to come is the hard part. I definitely have a long way to go!! So i am nervous but excited to enter the field. Its all kind of in the unknown is what I am nervous about i guess. But it will be amazing!! And i definitely think about "the gap" all the time. It has really helped. 

I have made the best friends here and i am so sad to leave them! the good thing is that i will see a lot of them in Utah after i get back so we can have some awesome reunions and stuff. 

Ok I love you so so much!! hopefully I will have a lot of time next time to send all my pictures and everything!! i might not get to email you until a week and a half because i am missing nexts week's pday, just a heads up. 

Proselitismo!

Oi gente! Exciting things to talk about hoje. 

We went proselyting on Saturday!! Basically we drove to a famous/popular street in São Paulo called Avenida Paulista, then got dropped off to go talk to people for a couple hours and share a little message about the gospel, and see if they are interested in learning more! Not going to lie, i was a little nervous at first, but it was so great! Sister Shepherd and I had a goal to get at least 3 contacts. So we just started talking to people! They are so kind! If they didn't want to talk to us, they would just swerve away and we found someone else to talk to. We talked to some great people and had some awesome conversations. By the time we had 20 min left, we had one contact, so we prayed again to be able to hit our goal of 3. Then, right after, we talked to this super sweet couple and got their contacts! And just like that we hit our goal! And we even got 1 more before we had to be back to the bus! It was such an awesome experience and just shows that with the help of the Lord, anything is possible. It made me love the people so much already and I can't wait to go to O Campo! 

We had a great devotioal with Presidente Martins Silva (prez of the CTM) about how we can learn more through the Holy Ghost. It was awesome and it is so cool that we can be taught so much through the scriptures through the Holy Ghost if we just look and ask. 

Other:

It was actually cold yesterday and today! Had to bring out the jacket! Haha but by cold its really not that cold. I love Brazil.

The language is coming! I am able to understand a lot more than speak, but it is amazing to see the progress. 

Love you all so much!!!

com amor,

Sister Jeppson

Questions Answered: 

Hello!! Aw so good to here all thats happening! Awesome that you talked to Emma, miss her!!

I have not been sick! (knock on wood haha) a ton of people have here in the ctm, but luckily i have stayed out of it.

-the water is all good here, so i haven't cracked out the water bottle yet

-prosetlying was so so good! It made me sad on the way there because i saw a lot of homeless people and had a moment where i just saw everyone through Gods eyes. very neat.

-my hair dryer and stuff all work and becasue it hasn't been raining, it hasn't been hard to do my hair which is cool

-yes the missionaries are coming in hot!! the mtc is expanding from 150ish to almost 500 by the time i leave!

-Thank you so much!!! the cookies from that place are yummo!!!

random: some Brasileiro told me I look like wonder woman hahaha just thought it was funny

I love you so so much!!!!!

Love, 

Sis Jeppson

Happy 4th!!!

Happy 4th of July everybody! You know we are all dressed in red white and blue here in the CTM!! And we had an awesome lunch with the most American food they can make haha and it was all decorated for us. A for effort. We also were singing all the American songs on the bus from the temple this morning. God bless America!

Ok we have even less time to email now because of all the people that have arrived here in the CTM. So this will be a short one.

We had an awesome devotional watching a re-broadcast of Jeffrey R. Hollands devotional he did in 2014 in the Provo MTC. It was so powerful and awesome!! My favorite quote from it is "you've never done anything so right as this" and its so true!! I love it here and love what I am doing!!

Two Spanish elders arrived last week that are going to my mission and one of them is from the Dominican Republic and knows my friend Smith Heaps that is serving there right now! Such a small world. And exciting that we are getting more people going to Sao Paulo East Mission!!

Last Sunday was so good!! It was probably the best fast Sunday I have had in my entire life. We had a great mission conference and testimony meeting. Sundays here are just the best.

Side note for all the futebol fans...Brazil played Mexico this week and won 2-0 (sorry CJ haha). The city is just so loud when they are playing!

Com amor, 

Sister Jeppson

Questions Answered from Mom: 

São Paulo is great!! So crazy because there are so many people. There is both poverty and not everywhere. It's sad to see people living in tents on the freeway road parts. But the MTC is clean. Laundry is crazy because we only have 4 washers and dryers so we have to combine clothes. 

The language is coming along! Slow but steady! Some days I feel like I can't speak at all, but other days i realize just how much the gift of tongues is real! We go proselytizing this week so I'll be sure to tell you how well I can communicate then haha. 

I am warm enough! It has been pretty warm here.

Hopefully, i will get at least an hour to type in the field.