Oiii familia! I'M IN BRAZIL!!!!!! yahoo, can't believe I made it here in one piece.. president swenson told us that they already notified you of the little hiccup that happened at the airport when there was no one to pick us up... apparently the Brazil CTM didn't even know we were coming haha. We all fasted and prayed for a miracle that none of us would lose any of our suitcases on the way over and they all made it!! God looks out for His missionaries. I wish I had more time to tell you all everything but we only get a half hour to email here so my emails will be shorter, I'll do my best.

WOW Brazil is so beautiful. We got out of the airport and were glued to the windows as we drove through Sao Paulo - the trees, the grasses, the tropical flowers, the mountains... it's seriously a dream. I love this place. The humidity is already killing me though.

We are 4 of 7 Americans in the Brazil CTM. Total of 200 missionaries. Easy to say that we are the minority here and as of next week the three other Americans are leaving, crazy. It's definitely a different experience here. I miss the Provo MTC a ton... miss the teachers, my district and friends I made there, the mountains... can't say that I'm particularly enjoying the CTM as of right now but I've only been here for like 2 hours so I'll letcha know how I'm feeling in a few days. First major improvement though - THE FOOD. IS AMAZING. wow I am so happy, fresh fruit and rice and beans and meat and GUARANA. Yessss it's so great. Second improvement - small CTM equals lots of one on one time with president and his wife, the missionaries and instructors, and basically everyone. It's just one big party down here! Third improvement - AMAZING view of Sao Paulo from my bedroom window. We're on the 4th floor and it's gorgeous, I love all the colored buildings and high rises.

P-day is friday, which means that we get to go to the Sao Paulo temple!!! I'm so excited!!! And apparently we also get to go to the Campinas temple, depending on the traffic of the day. So they never know which temple we're going to attend until the morning of haha.

It's so humid here, but it feels so good on my skin and my hair is already enjoying it... sorry mom but I had to pull my hair up in a bun for that picture with the president that they emailed you!

Our new district in the CTM is just us 4 from our old district. It's really different.. and our instructor doesn't know where our language skills are at yet but it's much more intensive on the lanugage here. SYL (speak your language) was a thing in the Provo MTC but here.. it's your life. If you don't speak in portuguese all the time the instructors pretend like they don't understand what you're saying, and you have to speak to each other in portuguese at all hours of the day, even when you're not in class. And then you grade yourself on it... it's like way more stressful here but I'm grateful that someone is pushing us to learn the language better because we're already in week 3 and that's freaking me out!!

I sort of feel like I'm starting all over again here- new CTM, new classrooms, new living quarters, new food, new schedule, new computer keyboards (actually really frustrating). But really I'm just learning and preaching the same gospel so I have faith in the Lord and this change, He knows what is best for me!

Well that's all I've got time for, but I'll be emailing you on friday again, with better and probably more spiritual updates haha. As for now I just wanted to let you know that I arrived safely and healthily em Brazil and feel so blessed to finally be here!

Ate mais!

Sister Brown

PS - rumor is true, we can't send pictures from here, such a bummer. I also asked the senior couple about wifi and there isn't any around here so looks like you're outta pictures until March, but that's only a month from today! Pray that the rest of my district will get their visas and join us here.