Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Well, I was thinking about this all morning while we were on our way to and from the temple, and I have come up with a blank. Nothing really spectacular or amazing has happened this week so I don’t really know what to write to you about. We did all the normal stuff all week. We had class, ate, more class, ate, gym time, slept….and over and over again. Normal week. We taught our first lesson in Portuguese. It was pretty cool. On the week that you don’t proselyte, you do this thing called TRC. I really have no idea what it stands for, but we’re supposed to teach members from around the area. They come in and pretend they’re investigators. There is a camera in the room and they record your lesson and then you watch it afterward. Apparently they didn’t have any members the day we taught because we just ended up teaching some Brazilian missionaries. It was still good though. We got through the lesson without too many snags. My parts are really simple and to the point because I don’t know much Portuguese. I just say what I know, but that’s okay. It was cool. We watched it and I don’t think we did too badly. They even asked us a few questions and we were able to understand them and answer their questions alright. It was cool. So did Kelly make it back yet? I bet she’s having so much fun at home with the family. I understand how hard it is now to be away and I’ve only been gone a month! Crazy! I can’t believe 1/18th of my mission is already over. I got to work really hard for the next 17! It’s so crazy how short we’re out here. The time just flies. I think its going to fly even faster when I get out of the MTC. It’s actually really strange. The days seem really long. We work and study all day every day…but the weeks fly. It’s weird. When people ask me how long I’ve been here, I want to say a week, but it’s been 5! Holy cow!

Oh yeah, and I can receive emails from anyone on my myldsmail account, Melissaorto@myldsmail.net I just have to write them back. So you can tell people they can email me if they want. Just let them know that I will probably write them back on www.missionties.com If not, it will be 3 weeks later in the mail. Just fyi. So….hows the preparing for Thanksgiving going? I have heard that they have a big lunch for thanksgiving with normal thanksgiving food mixed with Brazilian food. I have been told they serve turkey and mashed potatoes and pies and ice cream. I sure hope it’s good. I’m thinking I may not want to eat breakfast tomorrow so I can eat more at lunch! I won’t lie though; the food here really isn’t bad. The rice and beans never fail. Every day they serve it. Then they serve other random things…a lot of meat. I have salad almost every day. They serve really bizarre desserts. I’ve only had a few good ones. They also serve strange fruit. I haven’t found too many that I like. We’ll see what it’s like in Recife. I can’t wait to go, but I’m also really nervous. Portuguese is hard!!!

Mom, I got your letters this week. Thank you! They always make my day. Getting mail here is like Christmas. Seriously. We’re going proselytizing again this week. I’m excited. If it’s anything like last time, I will LOVE it. Last time was so amazing. I’m sure it will be cool again. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Sis K and I taught our first short lesson in Portuguese to one of the teachers, Sis. Michelotto. We were practicing it. Anyway…after we were done she critiqued us and told us what to do better and what went well and all that. They we just ended up in a conversation about Portuguese and she told us that God will bless us so much learning it. We are learning it for him. We didn’t choose to learn it for ourselves. We’re learning it to serve him. Wow, I never thought about that. How true though. I never chose to learn Portuguese. I’m doing it to share the Gospel with my brothers and sisters. Of course God will bless me to learn it. I mean, I knew he would bless me, but I never thought about the fact that the only reason I’m learning it is for him. Never in my life would I say, hey, you know, I should learn Portuguese. Yeah anyway…I thought that was a good thought. Well, I guess I better go now. There are a million elders waiting to use the computers and I’ve been on for a while. I love you so much. Thanks for all the love and support. I love hearing from you. Keep up the good work! Keep sharing the gospel! It’s amazing! Tchau! Com amor, Sister Ortolani

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

1 month down 17 to go.

This week was ótimo!(great). We went proselyting on friday and I was scared out of my mind thursday night cause I thought that it was going to be really scary and I don´t really speak português yet but let me tell you....it was the best day yet! The Lord really takes care of his missionaries. I prayed to have courage, to have the spirit, and the gift of tongues and he blessed me with all three. It was fantastic. We met 4 people who spoke english, which was cool, and a whole bunch of other people. We talked to this man about how God loves all of us and has restored his gospel on the earth through a prophet and also revealed the book of mormon. He talked to us for a while just asking questions and stuff. Then we decided instead of giving him a pass-along card, we would give him book of mormon. It was amazing. He seemed genuinely interested. He was asking us why we chose to talk to him out of all the people on the street. He seemed really touched that we were sharing a message with him. It was soo cool. We met another girl who said she had studied philosophy in New York City and had a lot of questions about life. We gave her a pass-along card and told her that the book would answer many questions. It was so cool. We also met another woman and shared our message with her and she was so sweet. We gave her a book of mormon too and told her to read Moroni 10 and the introduction. We told her it contained a promise that if she would read the book of mormon and pray to know if it was true that God would answer her and tell her that it was. She seems genuinely interested too. Before we parted ways she wanted to make sure that she understood which chapter she was supposed to read and then gave us both hugs. She was so nice. Sure, there were people that listened to the message and took the card to be polite, and a few that just shrugged us off and didn´t want to listen, but the people that really showed interest made up for all those other people. We truly had the Lords help and guidance as we walked around. It was a place called Avonida Paulista or something like that. Apparently its equivalent to Wall Street for Brasil. There were a lot of people walking around. It was so great. It really made me want to work on my português so that I can share more. The Lord definitely blessed us though and we were able to talk to many people and understand and answer most of the questions people were asking us. Wow. What a wonderful day that was.

Today we got to go to the São Paulo Temple. It was beautiful. They have stained glass windows in the front and in the celestial room. It was cool. For lunch today, our teacher took us out to a restaurant where they go around and cut off pieces of meat right on your plate. It was interesting. I actually ate a little chicken heart. It wasn´t bad. It tasted pretty good but it was very chewy. I really like getting to know a new culture. Its cool to experience new things like that. Oh yeah, on our way to proselyting....we saw a Sam´s club...and a walmart. Haha. Apparently they have them here.

On sunday we had a fireside (like we always do) and President Jackson and his wife spoke. They are the mission presidents of the São Paulo Interlagos mission. Guess where they´re from? Bountiful. Guess who´s ward they´re in? Nana and Pàpa! I was pretty excited when they started talking about Bountful that I had to run up and talk to them afterwards. It was pretty cool. Its strange how small the world really is.

I was showing my district pictures of my family the other day and my teacher was looking at them. He stopped at one of the pictures of dad and said, Wow! He looks like a really cool person. I was just like, what? Haha. He said he thought dad just looked really happy. Then yesterday I was talking about how I spent the last three weeks before I came here at home and how my mom and I played video games all the time. Paçanha (my teacher) was like, holy cow! I want to meet your parents. They sound so cool. I assured him that they are. I really do miss you. My district probably gets sick of me talking about you. It seems like its a regular occurance that I bring you up. Sounds like things are good at home though. I just wish I could be there. Oh well, I´ll spend Christmas in Brasil I guess. Haha.

My mission address is

Brazil Recife MissionRua São Francisco, 110/102
Paissandu-Recife-PE
52010-020
Brazil

I love you so much! And miss you tons! Com Amor, Sister Ortolani

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Pictures from Brazil

Melissa sent some pictures from the MTC. Enjoy.

First picture is of all the American Sisters on Halloween. We dressed up as Elders. haha

The second picture is of my whole district. The third is of Elder Lobo. The one I told you about earlier. He left yesterday to go to his mission but he was really cool. He spoke a little english and he always told me that I had a really good accent. My teacher actually told me that too. Hopefully when I come home I´ll be speaking portugués like a brazilian!

Mel's 4th week out

Oi! Tudo Bem! Well, 4th week...here I come! I can’t believe we’re starting our 4th week already. Pretty crazy. The time has really flown by. I know we really haven’t been here that long but it kinda feels like we just got here. Well, I didn’t tell you before, but when we got here we had to surrender all our money and our debit cards. The gave us 60 reais and told us they’d give us 60 more in 5 weeks. So here I am on my 3rd week and I only have 15 left. Yikes. I developed some pictures to send home and it cost me 20 reis! Holy cow. Yeah, I didn’t know it was going to cost that much. So now I don’t have enough money to mail them home. I don’t have envelopes big enough to put pictures in and I still need money to get on the internet and mail letters so I’ll have to figure that out in 2 weeks or so. I’m going to borrow an elder’s card reader and try to send an email with pictures. I hope that works.

Thank you so much for the package! It made my whole week! I was so excited to get stuff. Oh, I talked to one of the ladies in charge here and she said that the MTC doesn’t have to pay for clothes so if you want to send that dress along....that would also be appreciated. You could send me one of my skirts too if you want, like the blue one with the polka dots. Turns out that my skirts only have to be below the knee. Could you send me hangars too? Turns out I should have brought them cause I haven’t seen them sold anywhere around here. My clothes just get wrinkly really easily. I can’t believe I got that package a week after you sent it. I got the letter from mom the same day as the package too. Did you send them on the same day?

And I saw that you signed up for mission ties. I think that might be fun. How much did it cost? I wasn’t really sure how it all works. I do know that I can write to anyone though and just have them email the letter so they get an email with my handwritten letter attached. Pretty cool. Oh, I got a letter from Nana and Papa so if you could tell them that I received it that would be very much appreciated. I love getting mail. It’s always so exciting. Can you give me nana’s email? I forgot to write it down.

Oh...I translated something....and our district quotes it all the time...anytime someone says QUESTION.

Pergunta: Qual urso é melhor?? J That means: Question: Which bear is best? Lol. Yeah. We’re dumb but we laugh every time. One of the guys in my district is hilarious. He watched the office all the time so he says quotes from it all the time. It’s great.

Oh yes, I had a really hard time deciding which scripture I wanted on the plaque. I really like 1 Nephi 10:19. I think you can put that one on there. I also really like 3 Nephi 20:30-31 and 1 Nephi 9:6. Moroni 10:35 or something like that is also really good. I had a really hard time deciding.

Well, the language is still coming along. Slowly but surely. We’re going proselyting on Friday and I’m scared outta my mind. Holy cow. I can’t speak enough Portuguese to have a conversation with people. Yikes. It will be a learning experience for sure. My companion is progressing so much faster than me and the rest of the district. It’s insane. She kinda makes me feel inadequate but I guess that’s not really her making me feel that way. I’m the only one that can make me feel that way, but MAN...Portuguese is just REALLY hard for me. I just keep telling myself that I’ve only been here 3 weeks and I can still learn more cause I have 6 weeks left at the MTC. Still scary. Well, I don’t know what else to tell you about. I should have probably written some stuff down but oh well. I hope everything is going good at home.

I love you so much. I hope all is well. I love hearing from you so keep writing lots!

Com Amor,

Sister Ortolani

Monday, November 10, 2008

To Melissa's Family and Friends

While Melissa is on her mission her Dad and Mom are posting her letters. I hope that you all enjoy them. Feel free to comment and we will send the comments back to her. Feel free to write to her as well. She can’t accept email from anyone but family but the mission will let her receive snail mail. There is a website www.missionties.com that will print up an email for you and send it to her in Brazil while she is there. It’s a little more than a stamp but she will get the letter in country in a few days instead of 10 days.

Oi! Como vai!? Well, second P-day and its been good so far. We went to the temple this morning expecting it to be exactly like last time...in English and everything...nope. It was in Portuguese. There were so many Brazilians there that it made more sense to do it in Portuguese than in English so we got to use those funny little head sets and listen to it in English. I tried to turn the sound down so that I could listen in Portuguese and I could pick up on some of the stuff, but it was really hard. Everyone here speaks so quickly that it’s hard to pick up on the words that I know. Well, the MTC has been pretty much the same. Yáll have no idea how much I miss you. I think about you every day and sometimes I even cry about it. I don’t know what my deal is cause I have never been like this before. I guess being thrown into a foreign county where I don’t know anyone and no one speaks my language and I only get to talk to the people I know once a week. It’s pretty ridiculous. I know that I’m being blessed for what I’m doing though. We had a devotional yesterday and I swear it was just for me. I’ve been struggling with being happy here. I don’t understand why I feel this way cause I love being a missionary. I guess it’s just been hard with all the change...and so suddenly. Anyway....he talked about how the way to be happy on your mission is to work hard. He said that working hard makes you happy, makes your time go by faster, and serving the lord blesses your family and opens doors for you in the future. Its D &C 118:3 I think where it talks about the apostles. He said he thinks it applies to us too. I think so too.

My relationship with Heavenly Father has strengthened so much. More than I ever thought possible. He’s like my really, really good friend here. I tell him everything and he helps me with anything when I ask. I can feel his love every day and I know he’s watching out for me. He really answers my prayers and blesses me with the things I need. I know the little bit of Portuguese that I know is because of him. There is no way I’d know anything without him. P.S. Missionaries LOVE mail. Seriously. It’s like the best thing cause you can get it any time of the week. I can only reply on Wednesday, but then I can be thinking about what I want to say back.

Oh, something funny that I forgot to tell you last week. Irmão Bolzan is our morning teacher and one of the first days that he taught us he said he had 1 very important rule. No pooping during class. lol. Yeah, that’s right, that’s what he said. He kind of laughed when he said it but he was serious. He hates when he lets the missionaries out to go to the bathroom and then they take 20 minutes to poop. You have got to meet this guy. He’s hilarious. We were trying to convince him to move to America yesterday cause he is having problems with his girlfriends family. I guess they don’t like him for some reason and he was telling us that there really aren’t a lot of people to date around here. We told him that he should move to Utah cause there would be tons of girls to date.

So, Brazilian drivers are crazier than Roman drivers. Seriously! It’s bad. There are motorcycles everywhere and they automatically get the right-of-way. Oh yeah, and pedestrians have no rights here. If you get hit by a car, it’s your fault. Wow. So on the way home from the temple this morning there was this motorcyclist that drove by our bus and I think the bus driver moved over a bit and the motorcyclist had to swerve a bit. So he ended up being behind us. He drove up really fast and kicked the side of the bus. He then went to kick it again and the bus slowed down so he was in front. He pulled over to the side and waited for the bus again to kick it! Then the bus sped up and he kicked the back of the bus and drove on. What the heck? I thought it was crazy and hilarious at the same time. What did he think that was going to accomplish? Seriously. The food here is the same...like every day. Rice and Beans....or beans and rice. There is always some variation of that. Sometimes there are some good things along with it like fried chicken or pasta or lasagna, but oftentimes it’s gross. I think it’s only because it’s in the CTM though....cafeteria food. I’ve heard that it’s much better outside. Also, I was talking to one of the Brazilian sisters the other day and she told me that she worked in Recife for a few weeks and couldn’t ever sleep past 5:30 because it was so hot. She’d wake up soaked in sweat. Gross. I hope it’s not like that for me. Sick. Yeah anyway...I think that’s all I got. I hope you are doing well. I love you so much. I hope to hear from you soon!


This next letter is a personal letter to Melissa’s Mom but it’s so sweet I had to share. I also had to edit a bit.

Mom,

I know your birthday is coming up on Sunday and I wanted to write a letter to you since I haven’t really had the opportunity to get you anything. I love you soooo much… I appreciate all the sacrifices you made for me to be the person that I am today. I still have a lot of work to do on myself but I’m so glad that I know the gospel is true… You are the reason that I’m here....well, sorta. I mean, the gospel is pretty much the reason I’m here haha, but you are the reason that I know the gospel is true and everyone deserves to hear it. Everyone should have the opportunity to hear the gospel. We are all God’s children and he wants us to return to him. The only way we can do that is through the atonement and the gospel. I love you so much. I know this is the true church of Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore the gospel on the earth today and I’m so grateful that he did. Can you imagine if we were still in a state of apostasy? We would all be so confused and lost in the world. I know that President Monson is a true prophet that was called of God and he receives revelation for all of mankind. What would we do without him and the rest of the apostles? We would be in a state of complete confusion. Wow, I’m so glad that I was born into this church because honestly, if I were an investigator right now, I don’t know if I would accept it. I have grown up knowing it was the truth and that is because of you. I owe you so much for what I know. I hope that I can someday repay that debt to you. I hope that you are receiving some sort of blessings for me being here. That speaker at devotional yesterday told us that the best way to show our family how much we love them and to bless them the best way is to serve the lord with our whole heart and work as hard as we can and be as obedient as we can. I hope I can do that because you deserve all the blessings that you get....and more. I love you. I hope this letter isn’t too scatterbrained. I’m feeling a little scatterbrained right now and words are just coming out. I hope you have a great birthday. You’re almost 50 you know? ;) Just kidding.

Love,

Sister Ortolani