The Mailman

Here:

Okay. If we counted how excited a person was to go to curitiba by the number of limbs they had in the air, I'd be on my back with all my appendedges and my head upward in the air. Painful. But sooo worth it. I AM SO FLIPPING EXCITED. But the next time you here from me I will probably be freaking out ;) Yup I spelled here wrong. Oh well. Anyways. Be either prepared for a super high experience. Or me freaking out that I can't understand anyone ;) But I literally love here so much. We are sooooo close with the hispanicas. We always talk and its wonderful. A thing they do here when they greet each other is hug then kiss in the air while cheek is against cheek. Everyone is so warm and kind and loving and just wants to give you a hug. I don't know if i explained that well enough but oh well.. ;) One thing. Brazil has a lot of holidays. they just had one last weeka nd they just had one this week. I swear. Party central down here ;) Also. Something I learned. Coconut and poop are practically the same word here. So that should be interesting.

Scriptures:

Can I just tell you that it is the coolest thing reading the scriptures in a different language?!?!? You have to read it so dreadfully slow that you have to look at each word with real intent. AND they have different words than in english. It truly is fascinating. And I learn more in one chapter than I might have in 3 chapters of english. It seriously is marvelous. Unless it was chinese.. That would be hard ;)

Things I will miss from here:

Pizza. They have good pizza. People. I have met the most wonderful people here! Companions. I have grown to absolutely love my companions :) They are both so strong and my wonderful pals :) We call ourselves the three nephites ;) Instructors. I will miss them so much.. Today we are going out and buying them presents before we go :( It makes me sad. But I am ready to move on :)

Tender mercies:

I heard a devotional this week that really made me think. If you took just 5 minutes at the end of the day to see how much your life has been blessed, you would realize that the Lord put tender mercies in your life today. As he does with every day. It really is fascinating and is something that I've learned from writing in my journal. Yeah. Who would of thought. Me writing in a journal ;) Oh well ;) But pay attention. Because He is merciful and He does care :)

Mail man:

So, going off of that comes my analogy of my week. So often we take mail for granted. Real life communication delivered to us from the outside world right to our doorsteps. We never sit inside waiting to see if the mail will come or see when the truck exactly pulls up. But we go aimlessly day by day just getting the mail, bringing it inside, and throwing in on the stairs (at least that's what I do.. sorry mom) I think sometimes we forget where it comes from. We know that there is a mailman. We know we get mail. But we don't acknowledge it. So, comparing it to my last paragraph. Blessings. Which has been a common theme this week. So often we don't really take into account the blessings we receive each day. And we don't sit there trying to notice the the mailman actually physically came to our mailbox and hand delivered these messages. We know he's there. But we don't dilligently look for him and realize that He's doing that for us. BUT how lucky are we that our figurative mail man still works holidays and weekends. Pretty lucky right? :) Anyways. Count your blessings. For there are a lot of them! :) Well. That's it. At first I wanted to compare this to an ice cream truck. I'm glad that I compared this week to a mailman.

Phillipines:

I know this is probably old news, because i just heard of this from this week. But make sure that you keep the Philippines in your prayers!

I love you all so so so much! And it means the world to me to read your letters every week! You all are wonderful examples to me and I just love hearing from you guys all the time! You are amazing and I love you and you are amazing! Keep that in mind :)

Love,

Sister Parco :) <3

You're going to be really disappointed with my analogy today ;)

YELLOW! Hope you are all wonderful!!! Here e go!

People:

I flipping love people. I hope you guys know that. The people are amazing here. Our companionship has gotten really close to a hispanic district and it is SO much fun! They always gather right in front of our door and we talk and sit and laugh and make jokes! It's amazing that even though we can hardly understand each other, we can still communicate. IT'S AWESOME! And boy do they know how to have fun! We sit, talk, laugh and take pictures. It's wonderful. I've also gotten really close to one of my roommates. She's hispanic but we get into these deep conversations. She's had a rough past which makes me feel so ungrateful. She is very special and I love to just sit and talk and try to use all the portuguese vocab I have to talk with her :) I love talking with her so much!

District lesson:

Every week we have someone who gives a lesson from our district. This turn was Sis F. It was amazing :) So you guys are going to do it to. Alright. picture in your heads someone that you do not get along with at all. The people that annoy you like crazy. Got it? Alright. Now we're going to draw a picture of that and put it on a target. After we do that we're gonna pull out some darts. You can throw as many as you want at the picture. Until you're satisfied. Okay. Done? Alright. Well. Turns out that under that target was a picture of Christ. The picture is torn, the pieces are ripped. He has holes in several places on the picture. Think about it. "If ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me" Totes deep, huh? I love it. I guess it reminds us that we all need to have christlike love for each other all the time :) I just thought it was a good lesson and I wanted to share it with you wonderful people :)

Random occurrences:

The electricity went out this week! It was fun!!! All the lights were off, and the air con wasn't working at all. AND it was in the night. Pretty scary. Turns out a huge part of the city lost power! So when you looked outside, it was completely black. It was actually pretty cool. And fun :) Other random occurrences. We met an Instructor this week. She spoke very good english! You're not gonna believe where she learned it. Yup. watching all 10 seasons of friends. Flipping hilarious :) And now she is going to Canada to study english to get a job here. Isn't that cool?!?!?! I thought it was awesome!!!! Another one. So. we had a sub that subbed our class. It's amazing the slangs the americans tell the brazilians. He was trying to be all ghetto in his brazilian accent saying things like the bomb diggidy and homie and it was so hilarious! I don't know why americans tell them of this. Probably the most unused slangs ever ;)

I'm gonna write in Portuguese just cause:
Analogy time: (Sorry that my letter is so short...)

This is what you are going to be disappointed with. You ready? Life is like a rollar coaster. Cliche, ne? I was just thinking how we don't really control our lives. God does. Just like being in a rollar coaster. Sure. You can decide what faces you're going to make when the camera goes off. Or stuff like that. But once you're strapped in. You're strapped in. You don't have the capacity to choose which way the rollar coaster goes. You have no choice at all. So you go through the rollar coaster. All the loops, ups, downs, and side things that are scary, and you wait. You can either put your hands up or sit there and scowl. You can complain how the bar is too tight on your legs or you can be grateful for the security it gives you. Either way. The roller coaster is going to go on whether you have a say in it or not. Don't worry, I wasn't on the wild thing this week, and at the current moment, I am broken down on the hill as it is escalating :) Anyways, my realization this week is that God is in control. He knows what you're going to do and the things that will help you. I'm not saying the free will is taken away by any means, but God truly does know the ways we will be taking. It's kind of comforting to know that though, isn't it? We got the roller coaster manufacturer on our side. Pretty sweet, eh?

Anyways. That was my very cliche and very unput together analogy. Hope it made sense ;)

I LOVE YOU ALL! 12 MORE DAYS UNTIL I AM IN CURITIBA!!! :) <3

Love always,

Sister Alyssa Parco

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: Last week's analogy probably sounded like I was in depression. But no. I am not in depression. ;) Just had too much time to think ;) Got down and deep ;) Anyways. Here goes my week!

(Hey mom, I was wondering, for Christmas could you also send me the book Jesus the Christ? I thought they would give it to us in english here but they don't :/ Oh well. )

Random things:

Still eating beans and rice. Don't you worry. Still there. And I've made this little invention where you get a piece of roll, press down the insides, and put all the beans and rice into the roll. I recommend you try it. It's heaven. I'm wearing my retainers? Proud? Me too. I got this absolutely insanely sick looking scripture case. There is a man who hand crafts them and made them out of real letter and he writes your name, your mission, and a scripture on the back. I will take a picture of it and show you guys. Literally the coolest scripture case I've ever seen. Your jaws will all drop. Needless to say. I splurged and spent about 40 bucks american money on it. I had to. Forgive me. Next random thing. Hearing our portuguese teachers speak english is probably the funniest most amazing thing ever. When they say in their broken portuguese accent "oh crap" or other stuff it is absolutely hilarious and gets the whole class laughing. Irmao R told us some prime ones he learned while he was on his mission in japan.. ready? He was like "Why you all up in my koolaid, you don't even know the flavor" In his japanese/portuguese accent. I LITERALLY DIED. Our whole class was busting out laughing. I don't know how he learned these things. But they are wonderful. Threading. You ever tried it? My Samoan companion Sis F does it. It's where you take a thread, and then twist it and then put it against your face where it pulls all your hairs out. It's basically like plucking. But it seriously hurt. I think I'm going to try that for my mission. Maybe youtube it or something? ;) I have a picture so I'll show you later! Went to the police this week. Officially have a visa here for a year and a half! YAY!

 

The people:

 

I love the people here. They are so nice and so welcoming. We have made friends with some portuguese sisters and they always come in our room before we go to bed and we try to talk back and forth. We laugh so much even though we hardly know each other's language :) Also. I love the spanish sisters in our room. We always tease each other and play little jokes on each other and try to scare each other. They call me loca moccaco. (crazy monkey) Which. Get this. Turns out moccaco is a bad word in brazil. A derogatory word. Yup. So. That ended... ;) Of course, right? ;) I love just making faces with them and sitting and laughing :) Everyone here is so diverse it's wonderful! You meet people all over the world from south america. And we are all trying to speak the same language. It's wonderful.

 

Proselyting:

You are not going to believe what we had to do. This wednesday. Yup. We got on a bus, drove in the middle of the city and started proselyting. (Talking to random people in the street about the Book of Mormon and about Christ and gave them the book if they wanted it :) ) We had 4 books of mormon we had to give away. TALK ABOUT SCARY. I have been here for three weeks. And they expect me to go out there and talk about what I believe in and what I know. Scariest thing ever. But for some reason (Hand of the Lord) I didn't do bad at all! We gave all 4 books of mormon away to people that wanted them! It was crazy! It helps me know that I could do it even though I only knew the language for 3 weeks. Miracles happen, eh?

 

Miracle:

Anyways. After proselyting which was really fun and exciting, we went back on the bus and the people around us were curious to what we taught, and the craziest thing happened. Some guy walked up to us and started asking us about the church. THEN he followed us off the bus wanting to learn more. He followed us all the way up to the MTC while we talked about the gospel. BUT we couldn't teach him anymore because we had to go inside to the MTC. BUT GET THIS. Just before we got to the MTC, we met real missionaries who I had never seen in the MTC area before. So right when we had to leave that guy because we had to go to the MTC, the missionaries walked up and we handed him off to the missionaries. It truly was a miracle. Who knew. That exact time. He really cares about us up there. The big guy.

I hope that made sense. But it was wonderful.

My analogy:

This week was like being in a cab where the cab driver doesn't speak your language. And the whole time you're trying to make the cab driver go a certain way because you are positive that that is the fastest way. But turns out that the cab driver was actually taking you a shortcut the whole time. Needless to say. Sometimes we gotta let the Lord lead!

Anyways, I'm over time. I hope that analogy made sense... Not like they ever do. Oh well ;)

I love you all so much and think about you a lot! Take care. Be good! You all are wonderful!

Sister Parco

Life is like a police interrogation room

Hello All! I hope you are doing wonderful!!!!

My week:

I don't know why, but this week was harder than most. There were a lot of discouraging moments of language barriers and a lot of time was spent on my knees. But oh how blessed I feel. I'm here. I'm learning everyday. I'm meeting all these wonderful people. I'm growing. It really is a great thing. Sorry that I don't have more about my week, I will write down what happens this week so I can be more descriptive :)

So I've had a request at what I do all day. And I want you guys to know that I'm not goofing off ;)

Schedule:

I wake up at 6:30 and get ready until 7. Then I study scriptures for about an hour, then go to breakfast, then we go to this thing called tall. You basically put those airplane earphone things with the microphone thing and then you talk and practice. Muito legal :) Then Actividade Fisica! Believe it or not. You will see me hardcore working out during this hour. You ever been on pinterest to see the workouts? You should. Because they are painful. I have sweat pit marks to prove it. But I'm doing as much as I can, especially since they feed us like crazy here ;) Then I go to about 3 hours of class, have a break, then go to another 3 hours of class. Practice a lesson, and then plan for the next day. Then I get back at 9:45 and get ready for bed and wake up and start again! :) That's it :)

Teachers:

The teachers here are probably the coolest people ever. Brazilians are probably some of the most friendly people I have met. All the teachers teach us slang in there language and we know all the words that mean "awesome, cool, rad" They are so flipping hilarious :) I love them. Seriously. Irmao V is the nicest guy ever and he's just a plain goof. We always buy candy for them and throw it to them during class. Then Irmao R is really chill and can speak 4 languages! Crazy huh? They teach us a lot and their testimonies are amazing! They are literally my favorite. So 6 hours of class is still bearable ;)

Food:

Basic meal. Meat. A lot of meat. What I like to do is get lettuce, cut up the meat and then put rice and beans on top. Every meal. So gooooood :) They have wonderful meat here :) It's the desserts you ave to worry about ;) The first one i liked was yesterday. ICE CREAM. I don't think I could have gotten more excited. It was the most wonderful ice cream I've ever tasted. And I love churros. We get them at a stand and it's hallow on the inside so they fill it with fudge or dulce de leche. SO GOOD. I seem to talk about food a lot. So I'll Stop there ;)

Language:

Miracles do happen. For some reason. I can understand what the instructor is saying even though it is all in portuguese. It's the speaking back that is the hard part ;) But it's good. Thank heavens I don't have to roll my R's. RR's are h's. Man am I blessed. Thank goodness Heavenly Father knows I can't roll my RR's :)

Funny Moments:

I wish I just had a bunch of funny moments to tell you but there are so many. We all just hang out and laugh and talk. We just make jokes. I guess I could tell you about my nickname! The girls in my district call me pequina macacco. It means small monkey. I love it. Some of the Spanish Sisters here call me macacco too ;) So fun :) Let's talk about everyone here. They are wonderful! They are smiling and cracking jokes and just having a grand old time :) They are from all over South America. It's crazy how many different people you can meet! But that's about it for that :)

My district:

I love my district. We have 6 girls and 6 guys. We're all pretty tight. We talk all the time and hang out together everywhere! You might think going on a mission will take the humor out of you but it doesn't :) They are all hilarious and have wonderful senses (?) of humor :) OH! Our district leader, Elder L, well he is from Rochester, and guess what?!?!?!?! He was at the same party that I was at when I went to the Frei's! So I was probably introduced to him at Josh's Party. CRAZY HUH?!?!?!? Small world. And now we're in the same district :) Couldn't be more awesome!

Brazil:

It is seriously so beautiful here. The trees and flowers are so green and lively and beautiful! They can really make you smile

Devotional:

This week's devotional was on "The character of Christ by Elder Bednar" It is seriously so wonderful and really pushes you to be a better person. You guys should all look up the talk because it was great! And Holland. Just look up any talk by Holland and you'll love it. He is seriously a beast.

Analogy:

You should hold me to this. I think I will make an analogy of a random object every letter. Don't know how long it will last. But we shall see. Police interrogation room. Go easy. Still on little sleep. Life is like a police interrogation room. You're stuck in this room where you know of all the things you've done bad. You feel so guilty for anything you've done in your past or even how you're acting now. And then there's the mirror. Everyone knows there is someone behind it. But we never see them. All we see is our reflection. And all our flaws when we look into the mirror. BUT when you turn the lights off, like when you cup your hands around those kind of windows at grocery stores that are like this, you can see inside. Main point is. There is someone in the police interrogation room watching all your actions and fully knowing all the mistakes you have made. He makes note of it and takes careful notes of what he thinks you need. It's just like God. Sometimes we gotta be in the dark to actually see him there. Instead of looking at our faults and weaknesses, we can look at him. That's how it felt this week. Some times you have to get low to get the high. Sometimes you gotta let the police interrogation room get dark and lonely and scary before you can see the person attentively watching you inside. But you shouldn't doubt He's there. He's there. You just have to get past your own faults to see Him.

Gotta go. Love you all!!!


Sister Parco :) <3