Hi, Family!

Hi family!! How are you??

Thankfully I've figured out the computer situation better, so I have much longer to write this time. No ctrl c for me!! So how is everyone? I was so glad to read your emails!! Speaking of letters though, I´m starting the fourth week now and still haven't gotten anything in the mail! Weird! I know you guys have sent stuff and I keep expecting it every day, but nothing so far. So thanks for sending it all and I can´t wait to get it! But let´s see. To answer all the questions in Katie´s letter!

The weather. It´s winter here, but the only time you would know it is in the morning! At night it´s really not bad, but in the morning it can feel freezing, obviously not as cold as Utah weather but it can really chill you. But all the Brazilians bundle up! Also, the sky is pink at night, I think because it´s such a huge city, random piece of info!

The food. It´s pretty good, but very controversial - apparently the day before we got here, they started making major cutbacks in everything, including food. Our water pressure is really low, we´re really encouraged to turn lights off, etc. Apparently it´s church wide, with the crazy economic stuff. So every day we usually have like two kind of meat that the lunch ladies will hand you, and then a self serve part with rice and beans, some other kind of side, papaya or pineapple or one day there was mango, and almost every day greens with tomatoes for salad. It´s kind of lacking in vegetables, except when they had those greens, mom! I hope that got sent last time, I can´t remember what got sent and what got erased. But they made greens like you do :D So some people really hate the food and always complain. Oh, mostly what they complain about is breakfast. Every day they just put out rolls, ham and cheese. In the last week or so they´ve been doing cereal a few times a week, and sometimes fresh squeezed orange juice, which is awesome!! But rice and beans are a constant for lunch and dinner. And did I tell you one day there was brazilian barbeque? That was amazing, but it´s not normally that good, normally like kind of unidentifiable casseroles and such.

The city seems very big, you can just see it stretching out for miles! We seem like we´re a good ways from downtown, but still in a "big city" atmosphere. Our neighborhood´s called Casa Verde, which a couple of the teachers have said is a bad part of town and they don´t know why they built the CTM here. (Did I tell you it´s the largest church-owned building outside the US?) But we get to go out on P-day within a boundary of a few blocks, it´s so cool! I bought brazilian toothpaste because I´m already out! But it´s so cool to go see the city, and realize how little portuguese i know;)

Sister Johnson is great! We get along really well, we´re always together even when we don´t have to be, like sitting by each other at devotionals and stuff. We complement each other well, she has like this crazy knowledge of the scriptures and has them all memorized, and I can help her with portuguese. We get along great, I´m so glad we never have any problems! My clothes and all my stuff have held up great so far! No problems yet. And I still can´t even think of anything I forgot to bring! Amazing! But yeah, I´m pretty sure I have everything I need, but you guys are so sweet to keep thinking about it:) The shoes are fine so far! I haven´t walked any huge distances in them, but they´ve been good. I think I´ll be fine without the brown ones, at least for now!

So everything here is great. One of our teachers, Brother Lopez, is a little crazy and has decided we must be fluent by our 6th week, so he´s pushing us really hard. But it´s really good, I know I´ll thank him later! He really likes our district though, he went out with us last p-day to show us around our few block area. So the language is coming fine! I really don´t think it will be a huge problem, I think I need to worry more about what I´m going to be teaching and how to teach rather than the language. Brother Lopez has been pushing us to plan to teach people, not lessons, which is amazing. I´m working a lot on teaching skills and being able to go meet someone, find out their questions and concerns, and respond to them on the spot. That´s the main focus of Preach My Gospel as opposed to the lessons of the old days. So it´s been hard work, but everything´s wonderful! They take great care of us here. Oh, they thought they had their first swine flu case and everyone was worried for like 2 hours, but the hospital said the person didn´t have it after all, so it´s all safe here:) How are you guys doing?? I assume you´d tell me if anyone had the flu or wasn´t doing well! I´m sure you´re all fine. But I can´t wait to get those letters and find out more! It has been nice, though to not have to skim so much this time, so I´m glad you´re sending things by mail! I love you all so much!! I have the greatest family in the world.

Oh, funny story, so Brother Ruiz wanted to see all our family pictures, so I brought ours, and he saw Caroline and was so amazed by how adorable she is!! And he´s a really light Brazilian and always talks about how "red" he is (just rosiness we wouldn´t even notice), but he was like "Whaaa! She is so red! I think she is my future wife! We must be meant to be together!" I told him that was weird, but he thought she was adorable:D And everyone else said so too!! Thank you SO much for the pictures of her, she´s as beautiful as ever! Are you showing her my pictures every night? I love you all and hope you´re doing fantastically!! Teach Caroline to yell my name! :) I love you all, hope to hear from you soon!!!

Love love love,

Sister Madsen