First week in the FIELD!!‏

Hey guys!!! Here I am in Santa Maria!! Actually...*drumroll* in Cruz Alta, my first area!! :) Let me tell you everything!

So last Tuesday we traveled here (I told you we'd be traveling and you wouldn't get to hear from me, I hope you didn't worry!) So we all said our goodbyes at the CTM, got up the next morning, Sister Johnson went in a bus to her mission a few miles away, and I went off to the airport with Elder WItt and Elder Hanks, two from my MTC district. So we flew to Porto Alegre, the captial city here. The Assistants to the President (leadership-position-type - Dad can explain right?) met us there. They were way nice, both Brazilian, as is the majority of our mission. So we went in a van to Santa Maria, about 4 hours away. So we got there and walked to the mission office, in the middle of the city. There we met President and Sister Myrrha, the mission president and his wife! President Myrrha is SO nice, he's amazing. So he interviewed me and told me there were three possibilities of sisters to be my trainer! Three different areas. So apparently at that point he didn't know yet who it would be...but it's so weird, apparently everyone else in the mission did! But I'll get to that. So that night we were all interviewed, went to the mission home and ate with the president and his wife, and the sisters went to sleep in a different house.

So at the mission office I had met all the 3 sisters who were training, Sister Ribeiro, Sister Rafaela and Sister Cavalcanti. I had this instant connection with Sister Rafaela! She's tiny, even tinier than me, from Sao Paulo, tons of curly hair, the friendliest person I've ever met. She was so sweet and stayed with me all night and got to know me...I really hoped she would be my trainer!! Later that night at the house we slept at, she said how much she wanted to be my trainer too. She was on the phone with her district leader and said he wanted to meet me because he was positive she was going to train me. Our zone leader apparently saw my papers when they came into the office 6 months ago and told people "An American sister is coming in September, and Sister Rafaela's going to train her!" At that time Sis Rafaela only had 4 months in the mission so it was a little weird. But she was sure, the district and zone leaders were sure...and sure enough, the next morning when we met back at the mission home to do training for the trainers and trainees, I was assigned to Sister Rafaela!!

She's AMAZING. One of the nicest people I've ever met. In the mission they have this funny way of looking at it, they say you're "born" when you arrive and you "die" when you leave, your trainer is your "mom" or "dad"...so Sister Rafaela is my mom! She's so great, so patient with me and so sweet. So right, we had training that morning and then I went to the bus station with her and we went off to Cruz Alta!! So. Cruz Alta is about 2 hours away from Santa Maria. Let me try to describe it for you! It feels to me about like Cedar City. I have no idea how many people live here or how big it actually is, but that's what it feels like. It's very much a "country" city, it reminds me of those small towns in the middle of Utah. But bigger with a Cedar City like feeling. To describe it...it's not uncommon to see a horse and cart driving down the street! It smells like the country, horses and flowers and fresh air, and smoke at night when people make churrasco :) The area we're assigned to work in is only residential, just streets and streets of houses. The landscape here is BEAUTIFUL. When you get out to the end of our area, the end of the town, it's green rolling hills and red roofs of houses here and there...horses and cows grazing...there's always a beautiful sunset, and then at night, it's a pure deep blue sky with millions of stars! It's so beautiful here. The people here are so great! Very loving and polite. We've only had two people say they weren't interested in our message so far. And Sister Rafaela was surprised both times! They're so sweet, it's common decency to invite in the two strange missionary girls and offer them a drink.

So I LOVE the area, LOVE Sister Rafaela, and I love the work! It's SO cool after the MTC teaching pretend people and role playing with other missionaries, it's so much more fun to teach real people! There are so many wonderful families here. I'm just starting to get to know them all. But the gospel is on fire here! There are two thriving wards in this little town, practically all recent converts. People are really receptive to the message, it's amazing. So the only hard thing....it hasn't really been adjusting, I feel like I'm adjusting fine, it's just feeling like such a stranger. It's just hard to be a guest in someone's house where you can't understand anything and they've never talked to foreigners before so they think you're a strange alien... I love being with Sister Rafaela, after we leave someone's house it's so great to be able to talk to her.

I have to go for now, but everything's amazing!! I'm safe and happy and loving the work. I can't wait to hear from all of you!! Send lots of pictures! I love you all SO much and think of you often. Love you, write soon!!! :)

New address:
Sister Heather Madsen
Caixa Postal 0339
Santa Maria RS
CEP 97001-970