Week #1 - Hello From Sao Paulo!

First off I need to say that Sao Paulo is super hot and humid. Walking off the airplane, I immediately started sweating. The flight over was super long and boring and I was stuck on the airplane in between two big Brazilians... So that was fun lol. The first day here was horrible because we didn't really do anything and we were all just thinking about how we had just said goodbye to our families for 18 months, but the next day was amazing. Right when we got to the CTM, I found out my companion is Sister Hernandez! We are the only two missionaries in the CTM going to Brasilia. She is amazing. Sister Hernandez is fluent in Spanish, so she is going to learn the language really fast which stressed me at first, but then I realized that she would be able to then help me learn the language. Yesterday we found out that Sister Hernandez isn't going to be my companion anymore. Since she's already fluent in Spanish, she's going to be companions with a Brazilian. So now I will be companions with Sister Anderson (one of the cute twins in my district that you met in SLC at the airport when I left) and Sister De Mille. I was sad when I found out since this week with Sister Hernandez has been awesome, but I know that this is all happening for a reason. And now I am excited to be in a trio! 

Everyday and all day we have classes and all last week, we were only having classes about learning Portuguese. That was definitely stressful, but still fun. I love the Portuguese language, it is beautiful. And all the Brazilians are so nice and only want to help us learn the language. Me and Sister Hernandez are the only two sisters on our floor that share a room with just two other sisters. Everyone else has six girls in their room. Something awesome about our roommates: Sister Dominguez is from Honduras and is learning Portuguese, and Sister Braga is from Brazil speaking her native language. But the hard part is that they don't speak any English at all. So Sister Hernandez and Sister Dominguez (who both speak Spanish) have to translate for us. We also all decided to pray together at night in our native languages. Saturday night, Sister Braga prayed and she told me and Sister Hernandez that she would pray slowly for us so we could understand some of the stuff she was telling us. AND I UNDERSTOOD HER!! We had learned how to pray that day, and being able to hear her was amazing. Also, Sister Hernandez and I got called out of our class Sunday before church to meet with someone in our branch presidency... we looked at each other scared. We are now Sister Training Leaders for our zone!! We were shocked that they would call us as that, especially on our first week. But it was awesome and I was very humbled by that. (I don't know what will happen now that we will have new companions, so I will let you know.)

When we arrived to the CTM, we took pictures with our CTM president, Presidente Milder. He has lived in Sao Paulo for all his life, so I asked him if he knew my Grandpa (since my grandpa was a mission president in Sao Paulo in 1976) and he looked at me for a moment and then said: "That was my mission president!!" He then went around to everyone and was telling them about my grandpa and how I was President Beitler's granddaughter. And a lot of people knew "Presidente Beitler" which is crazy! 

Monday and Tuesday were just classes and learning the language. My district is great! Our teachers have told us that we are learning a lot faster than a lot of other classes. We already did a lesson with our teacher in Portuguese! It was scary, mostly because we couldn't understand him that well, but it was still fun. Today (p-day) we got to go to the Sao Paulo Temple. It was amazing. Literally no words. 

My first week in the CTM has been amazing. So many missionaries here have told us how hard it is the first week and how they always cried and hated it ... But so far I love it and I love learning the language and learning more about my Savior. I was asked to sing a solo tonight at the Welcome Devotional for the new missionaries arriving today.  Pray for me!

Love you all and miss you guys!! 

Sister Guilott <3

New Missionaries CTM 1/1/2020 with Presidente and Sister Milder

My district (my new companions will be the ones on the right). 

Sister Hernandez and me in our room - We like sleeping on the top bunks. It's too hot on the bottom.
No A/C in the bedrooms. We have A/C in the classrooms only. No where else.  It is soooooo hot! 
The A/C broke last night and we were so sweaty when we woke up. 

Taking a "selfie" at the Sao Paulo Temple with my digital camera!

Bite Picture #1 - I got these just sitting in class!!