Solo Sisterin'

1/24/17
HELLO AGAIN MY FRIENDS

It is officially week #seven in the CTM and last night/this morning we said goodbye to the half of our district that is leaving for the field! It was so hard. Last night we had a "graduation ceremony" and "senior superlatives" (I may or may not have won for "Best Dancing Lamanite Woman") and had our last district prayer. I am so so very grateful to have met all these people and have learned something unique and special from each one of them and sorry I'll try not to make this email as sappy as last week's LOL.

So this week is gonne be a little (a lottle) weird since I'm a solo sister with three Elders! Back at school I was so used to going to class or going grocery shopping or going to work by myself and I was fine but after being attached at the hip to someone 24/7 for the past six weeks, I feel awkward not having someone to even go to the bathroom with!

Okay so when we do practice teaching appointments it's kind of really weird because normally when there's a solo sister, she teaches along with two elders but since we have a trio of elders, they kinda split us up so two elders teach together and I teach with one elder (????). So there have been many, many instructors who have stopped us in the hallway on our way to teaching appointments because they're like WHERE ARE YOUR COMPANIONS (since it's a big no-no to be hanging out one elder/one sister) and we're like afdljadfjsorry hahaha our instructors told us to do this slçadjflsd. 

It's pretty great though. Our elders (my elders?) are super nice and tell me all the time to just tell them if I'm feeling lonely becuase they don't want me to feel that way and it's great! Also, they tend to walk in "alpha formation" around me whenever we go places as a district and they pretend that they're my security guards. 

Hahaha so I guess that's it for this week at the CTM! Probably won't be able to email again for a couple weeks so please know now that I love you all! And please continue to send me pictures because I love pictures of you!!

left to right: Elder Taylor, Elder Forsgren, Elder Shawkey, Elder McClary, Sister Lyman, Sister Wilcox, Sister Hales, me (ignore my face)

Thanks to my mom for sending me these!

Todo meu amor,

Sister Morata

Tudo Vai Dar Certo

OI GATINHAS

also disclaimer this email is filled with peptalks to myself and I don't mean to sound preachy so if I do sorry that wasn't my intent!!

Anotha (hot) week here in Rio Preto! Hahaha we knock on doors and we end up meeting a lot of crazy people LOL. It gets pretty discouraging when we have really good, spiritual lessons and we come back a few days later and the people don't want to meet with us anymore. But that is part of the work: everybody has the ability to choose to accept or reject our message and we respect their decisions.

An awesome phrase that I have been telling myself over and over this week: Tudo vai dar certo. Everything will turn out fine. It's hard to relax sometimes and let God take over. But it's good to remind ourselves (okay, myself, this is mostly a pep talk from me to me) that, as long as we're doing everything we can, God will take care of the rest. That is what the Atonement is for!

It's also a good reminder (again, to myself haha) that we don't have to have the illusion that we'll do everything right or that we'll finally be happy once we accomplish this or once we finally reach this step. Happiness isn't five steps away. We're allowed to be happy now. God takes care of us and wants us to find joy where we stand, not keep chasing some goal where we think happiness lies. Choose now! :)

Anyways, there's not much else to report here except can somebody send me a weather report of São José do Rio Preto sometime?? Just curious.

I LOVE YOU and please continue to send me pictures!! If you get engaged/married/graduate/go to prom/break your arm/have a baby/buy a puppy, I'd love to share in on the happiness!

Tchau para vocês!!

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

1. It pours pours pours rain sometimes but a girl still has to carry her groceries home

2. LOOK WHAT I FOUND

3. The tanlines has begun

4. I hit the two-month mark today! 

5. My companion is so sweet and made me breakfast!

Hello I have PICTURES and probably Zika

2/6/17
OKAY HELLO WORLD 

I'M FINALLY OUT OF THE CTM

So I'm in a little city here in São José do Rio Preto and it's gorgeous! It reminds me of a little town in California that my family drives through all the time. Also, when I was flying into Ribeirão Preto, I looked out the window and just saw rolling fields and little manicured, well, fields hahaha and it was GORGEOUS. I felt like I was flying in to a land out of a Shannon Hale book and I just kept thinking, "Wow, I can't believe this is where God needs me to serve." I love it!

This week has been nothing and everything I expected in terms of walking a bunch (LOL). Also, it's very hot. Haha but I'm acclimating so that's good.

Sorry my brain is so frazzled right now!!

OH okay so I thought I was gonna get a Brazilian trainer (missionary who has been out in the field longer than me whose job is to train me on how to be a missionary) but she's American and not only that SHE'S FROM VEGAS (well, Moapa Valley, but close enough). Her name is S' German and she's so excited to work all the time and smiling and happy. Love love love her. She's so patient and such an example to me and she's awesome awesome awesome. She also did a year at BYU and pretty much how did I not know her before??? Hahaha oh and she rarely every speaks English to me so that's good for me to practice.

Oh and I have  61498437998 mosquito bites so I probably have Zika or something oh well

As for spiritual things, there are SO MANY I can't think of them all at this moment but I will tell you about this little experience we had last night. We were out tracting (hahaha when missionaries knock and doors and people pretend they're not home LOL) and this lady came out and we talked to her a little bit about God and she told us she wasn't really interested or very religious but we asked to say a prayer with her and she said ok and so we did and when we opened our eyes, she had tears in hers and I KNOW that God touches hearts and I KNOW that God answers each of our prayers in ways they we individually understand them.

Life is good here in Brazil and I love you and miss you and I hope that next week's email is better!

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata
Here are some pics from this week/the CTM/Christmas Eve/New Year's Eve: