What the heck is Kenzie doing in Brazil?

November 6, 2015

In this weeks issue of What the heck is Kenzie doing in Brazil:

I have a special section entitled "Things dad would love/hate about
Brazil." *applause*

Love- They have the best Orange Juice ever, all we eat is meat and
cheese (and a lot of it) intermingled with either bread or rice,
Brazilians are super clean and shower like twice a day and brush their
teeth all the time, and there are tons of little shops everywhere and
everything is super cheap.
Hate- The toilet paper is dispensed in precut half-kleenex like sheets
from what looks like a giant tissue container, no nap times in the
CTM, nothing is EVER pronounced phonetically, and everyone is super
touchy and very friendly and loves to talk (I've spoken every language
I know and a couple that I don´t since being here, and no one seems to
mind that the effectiveness of your communication is like 13 percent.)
Spanish has helped my Portuguese comprehension so much, but Portuguese
has completely wrecked my Spanish. Even if I can think it in Spanish,
it just comes out in Portuguese now, which I guess is a good thing.

This week a girl asked me where I was from and I told her Tennessee.
She said, ´´Oh! Like Hannah Montana!´´ I laughed forever and
was just like yes, you're exactly right. Also we got two new sisters
from the Provo MTC and wow does their Portuguese suck. Is that mean? I
can´t tell, but it just makes me grateful to have been able to come
straight to Brazil and be fully immersed in the language and culture.
They were a little surprised when Irma Majory (one of our instructors)
came in on their first day and greeted them with a hug and a kiss, lol.
Gotta love Brazilians, cause they´ll definitely love you!

The people here are so happy and wonderful and I thought I´d share a
quick story about my roommate. We have a hard time talking to our
Brazilian roommates because they´re from Northern Brazil and have pretty
thick accents and talk super fast; but the other night I asked one of
them how her day was? She told me her day was hard, but it
was still a good day, and that in the CTM even the bad days were good
days because we´re here learning and preparing and feeling the spirit. She
told me how before she came to Sao Paulo she didn't really know how to
write; but after being here for just a week she´s been able to write
better than she ever has before, and that it´s coming to her so easily.
Her faith and understanding that this was assuredly a gift from God
was incredible. It was such an unexpected, and humbling experience for
me, and I hope that as I continue to grow and learn that I can emulate
the same goodness, faith, gratitude and humility that my sweet
roommate does.

I´m up to teaching 2-3 lessons a day and next week we´re going
proselyting in downtown São Paulo, so that should be fun and
interesting. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

LooOOOOvvEEEee,
Sister Curtis