I
am in the MTC! Weird, right? It all happened so fast. And I mean it,
they had me and my companion Sister Tait give a full blown lesson in
Portuguese on our third day here. I walked into class on Wednesday
and my teacher irma Hart started talking to me in Portuguese and she
was merciless. She almost never speaks English to us. It is incredible
how quickly I have been able to pick up the language, although my
Spanish is fighting for it's life. (During our third lesson with our
"investigator," Landon, I was explaining something and noticed that
Sister Tait looked super confused. And I realized that I had been
speaking Spanish the whole time. Whoops) I'm slowly opening my heart
to this weird hybrid language. Portuguese is madness and the
pronunciation is insane to me! My favorite word is diligentemente. If
you think you know how it's pronounced, you don't. "JILIJENCHEEMENCHEE"
Haha!
My companion is Sister Tait from Iowa (midwest!)
She went to BYU as well and is 19. She played college volleyball so
our gym time is the best. Volleyball errday! She is fearless and I
have already learned so much from her. Everyone in my district is going
to Sao Paulo, and we are all waiting on our visas. All the guys... I
mean elders... Are fresh out of high school. Sometimes I feel like they
are such children and I am the big sis. But other times I am humbled
at how much they know and how much I learn from them. It's only been
one week and we are already tight, like unto a dish. (get it?)
I have already seen so many miracles at the MTC. I
have never seen so much kindness, or felt more at peace with what I am
doing. There have been hard days, but It is a miracle how quickly I
have been able to cast aside discouraging thoughts. It's been a miracle
how fast I have learned to love the people I am with.
For the record, I am the oldest one in my district
and it only took ONE DAY for someone to ask me why I wasn't married yet.
HA. #spinster4lyfe #at20
Something I
learned very quickly here is that people don't care how much you know
until they know how much you care. My first priority is to love the
people I teach and build a relationship of trust. Our second lesson
with Landon we ditched any sort of a script and our Portuguese was
b-a-d. But we were able to make a connection with him and that is more
powerful than anything we could have eloquently said. Oh! And Landon
wants to get baptized! Ah! Who would have thought after a week I could
have learned so much? My brain hurts.
Every night I go to bed at 10:30 pm exhausted, and at 6:30 am
I wake up somehow even more tired. This is hard work and I don't know
why I didn't believe the people who told me it would be. But this work
is important. And I now think I know why so many boys in Utah are
balding. lawl.
Mom! Do you know who Vai Sikahema is? No? Well,
let me tell you. He played for BYU football during the miracle bowl and
ran the distance that made the miraculous win possible! (can you tell
from my obscure language that I understand nothing about football?)
Well we got to hear him speak in a devotional and it was pretty cool.
He told us about his mission in South Dakota.
The highlight of my week happened yesterday. We ran
into a woman who is from Sao Paulo! She started talking to us top
speed and I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING. A real Brazilian! Wow. I am so
blessed. She told us all about Sao Paulo. About how it's super
dangerous and that we should never look like we are rich. She told us
that soccer is in their blood and that it is bigger than even religion.
That people die over it. Wow.
Please pray that Brazil beats the US. Okay?
But
what I loved most was what she said of the people. They are friendly
and inviting. They will receive you with open arms into their homes and
offer the very food off their plate. People in Brazil take care of
each other. God knows my heart, because if any of the Brazilians are
anything like this woman, then I love them already.
I love you all and miss you muito. I pray for you all day every day
My time on email is short and I must go to the temple now! I can't wait!
Muito amor,
Sister Burch
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